S09.E06: Episode 6

[Kohola3]

23 minutes ago, caitmcg said:

(My library has also upped its borrowing limit in these times; unfortunately, each episode of a show counts as a borrow.)

Yes, definitely the down side. I had just enough borrows to see the last season of Doc Martin at the beginning of sheltering in place.  I have been blowing through the limit for each month but it is worth it.

[eel21788]

On 5/7/2020 at 10:58 PM, loribelle1 said:

This episode really hit home for me because I had patent ductus arteriosus as a young child, and had corrective surgery in California in 1963, two years before the time that this episode was supposed to be taking place.  I was 6 when I had the surgery, so my case might not have been as severe as portrayed in the episode, and I imagine neonatal surgery was a much greater risk/less of a possibility in 1963.  My mother did not have rubella, and we never knew why I had pda.  It is not something you hear much about, so I was really surprised to see a storyline about it on Call the Midwife, and such a sad one at that (since I was just a little kid, it did not make that big of an impression on me that this was a serious issue, but I now think about what my poor parents were going through with me, and the Kennedy assassination going on at the same time!).

The baby didn't die from a PDA. He had a hypoplastic left heart. The symptoms weren't apparent until his PDA closed a few days after birth. That is what is supposed to happen. All babies have a PDA at birth which is supposed to close in the first few days of life; however, sometimes it can take a year or two to close off. If it doesn't close itself off properly, it can lead to needing a surgical repair later in life. 

[eel21788]

On 5/4/2020 at 7:45 AM, MartyQui said:

Yes, they do it all the time at Boston Children’s, which was the first hospital to do the procedure.  They usually see the defect on ultrasound and then correct the heart within a few days of birth.  Children’s can also do it before birth, they were the first to do that too.  Its still a multiple surgery procedure, but their success rate is 98%.  I used to work there, it’s an amazing place.  Poor little Warren.

You're a little overly optimistic. A hypoplastic left heart requires a series of three procedures over the first three years of life: a Norwood procedure, followed by a Glenn procedure, followed by a Fontan procedure. Even if all three surgeries are successful, there is still a 35% chance the child will eventually need a heart transplant. 

[KeyLime]

Unfortunately, I think Hoopla has the PBS/Netflix Edit 😞  I’m late to the game and just started watching last season.  I’ve been watching old seasons on Hoopla and reading the corresponding threads here.  There are definitely missing scenes on Hoopla.  I can’t wait until the library is open and I can borrow the DVDs.

Back on topic for this episode, I’m glad to see more of Sister Francis.  A thought I had...would a nun ever be prescribed the pill to help with regulating her period?  

[Bad Example]

Please, please... let's just drop all story lines that involve May.  She's the most blank, wooden child actress.  Is she related to someone involved with the show?  Angela's pretty awful, too.

Yep, I'm awful, too, complaining about little kids.  But those two take me out of any scene they're in, every time.

[JudyObscure]

10 hours ago, Bad Example said:

Please, please... let's just drop all story lines that involve May.  She's the most blank, wooden child actress.  Is she related to someone involved with the show?  Angela's pretty awful, too.

LOL I think they're just too young to do any sort of acting.  Last week I remarked to my husband that the only "acting" they seem to know how to do is scream "YAY!" and run away.  They do it in all their scenes, even if it's just someone telling them to go outside or go to their rooms. It cracks me up,  I don't know how the other actors keep a straight face.

[debraran]

2 hours ago, JudyObscure said:

LOL I think they're just too young to do any sort of acting.  Last week I remarked to my husband that the only "acting" they seem to know how to do is scream "YAY!" and run away.  They do it in all their scenes, even if it's just someone telling them to go outside or go to their rooms. It cracks me up,  I don't know how the other actors keep a straight face.

Sometimes kids are cute but that's it. On Little House years ago, poor Carrie was adorable but couldn't act so Michael Landon brought in other kids as the others got older. I think it might be too early to tell yet  with these kids but with their age, they'll limit exposure.

[Kohola3]

14 minutes ago, debraran said:

Sometimes kids are cute but that's it.

Yeah, not a lot of Shirley Temples out there.  They have short attention spans and short memories so "Yay" and running are probably as good as we're going to get.

[Suzn]

3 hours ago, JudyObscure said:

LOL I think they're just too young to do any sort of acting.  Last week I remarked to my husband that the only "acting" they seem to know how to do is scream "YAY!" and run away.  They do it in all their scenes, even if it's just someone telling them to go outside or go to their rooms. It cracks me up,  I don't know how the other actors keep a straight face.

I think they do all the acting needed and I don't really want more than what we get.  I absolutely don't want them given heavy acting dialogue.  Most stuff written for small children sounds like it was written by someone who never met anyone under 12.   I don't want 5 year olds who sound like they are 30.

[Diana Berry]

I cried when they took pictures of the baby, when the father tried to give Lucille money for the film, when Mom woke up and checked on the baby, when Dr. turner cried in the car, when Mae’s mom wouldn’t sign the papers, when Lucille’s bf brought her flowers, and then when Lucille places the picture and the flowers with the other babies. 

 A 10 hankie episode.

[angora]

On 5/12/2020 at 6:35 AM, JudyObscure said:

LOL I think they're just too young to do any sort of acting.  Last week I remarked to my husband that the only "acting" they seem to know how to do is scream "YAY!" and run away.  They do it in all their scenes, even if it's just someone telling them to go outside or go to their rooms. It cracks me up,  I don't know how the other actors keep a straight face.

Hey, they can't all be Presley Smith (who played Sunny Baudelaire in A Series of Unfortunate Events.) I don't know what the ratio was between excellent kid-wrangling, camera trickery, CGI, and old-fashioned magic, but I was constantly amazed by her.

@JudyObscure, I didn't really notice the "YAY!" proliferation before, but now I'm going to giggle every time they do it.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 5/12/2020 at 4:35 AM, JudyObscure said:

Last week I remarked to my husband that the only "acting" they seem to know how to do is scream "YAY!" and run away.  They do it in all their scenes, even if it's just someone telling them to go outside or go to their rooms.

Ha!  I said exactly the same thing!

However, I think Angela is just about the cutest kid I've ever laid eyes on.  Every new season I worry that she's grown out of it, but so far so good.

So I'm happy to have her just standing there looking angelic.

[kirklandia]

I have been waiting to watch this season of Call the Midwife until after my grandbaby was born. I was so stressed anticipating his birth during  the pandemic - didn't think I could handle the emotional impact the show has on me even in normal times.

My grandson is a month old now.  I'm so glad I waited to watch. This episode just about did me in.  I had a little pity party after it was over, grateful that he's healthy but so sad that I can't hold him.

[Omeletsmom]

On 2/10/2020 at 9:04 AM, MissLucas said:

I managed to keep it together until Lucille placed the little flower pot with Warren's picture among the other babies 😢

Not me.  I sobbed all the way through this episode.  

[LeGrandElephant]

I was confused - what was the resolution with May? They’ll keep caring for her but not adopt her? They’ll be her legal guardians (is that different than adoption?) but not her parents? It cut away quickly after Esther asking them not to adopt and there was no further conversation about what they agreed or didn’t agree to. Is it still up in the air or is it settled?
 

I thought they all really botched the meeting with May and Esther. They should have had a conversation beforehand about her being shy and speaking English. The mother shouldn’t have gotten so intense so quickly and they all should have sat down and had a picnic until she became comfortable, not ran away the second she was shy. I blame the adoption worker, who should have done a better job preparing all the parents for that. If it had gone better maybe she would have signed the papers and asked if they’d send her photos and updates and let her visit again in the future. I know open adoptions weren’t standard back then but the Turners are unusually progressive and open and kind, and Esther is already depending on their goodwill by begging them not to adopt even though she won’t even be in the country or able to care for May and knows she would probably lose in court. The better solution is to have them legally adopt but depend on their goodwill to stay in touch. (And it would be nice if they could figure out a way for May and maybe the other kids too to have Chinese lessons, but that is asking a lot especially in that era.)
 

They could have recapped the backstory more. Do I remember a scene in a past season where an orphanage worker says May is always waiting by the door for her mother, who keeps coming back and then dumping her again? 
 

And they cut out a scene talking about how Angela doesn’t know she’s adopted too?! What a terrible cut. 
 

Did I miss a scene, this episode or the previous one, showing Lucille and Cyril being in a fight? That came out of nowhere for me. 
 

I’m pregnant now and I couldn’t handle the storyline about the dying baby. Once they knew it was rubella and he’d definitely die, I fast forwarded the rest of that plot. Too much for me. 

Edited October 9, 2020 by LeGrandElephant

[LeGrandElephant]

I wonder if this kind of episode will have any effect on antivax people, and if they had that in mind when writing it. IIRC the antivax movement started in 1999, meaning there could now be women who were never vaccinated as children who are approaching their time to get pregnant and have a baby. The MMR vaccine is a live virus vaccine, so I don’t know if you can get vaccinated once you’re already pregnant. Will anyone see this episode, realize their parents never vaccinated them against Rubella, and go out and get vaccinated before getting pregnant? 

Since Rubella is known to cause birth defects, and was apparently well known to back then, I did wonder why no one said anything when her two older children were diagnosed with Rubella during her pregnancy. Are we supposed to assume it was so early in her pregnancy that she wasn’t aware of being pregnant yet? The doctor said the midwives hadn’t missed anything, but since Val had seen her at the doctor’s office with her kids (did we see that scene in the past? I don’t recall), it seems like someone should have caught that. Though I’m not sure what they could have done about it back then. 

It made me grateful both for vaccines and for modern prenatal care - now they have all these 3D ultrasounds and stuff and I’m guessing, though not totally sure, that they could see a heart defect like that on the 3D fetal anomaly scan. 

[eel21788]

43 minutes ago, LeGrandElephant said:

It made me grateful both for vaccines and for modern prenatal care - now they have all these 3D ultrasounds and stuff and I’m guessing, though not totally sure, that they could see a heart defect like that on the 3D fetal anomaly scan. 

A hypoplastic left heart will be visible on the first prenatal ultrasound that allows you to hear a heart beat. The parents then have around six months to prepare themselves for what will happen after birth.

[LadyChaos]

This episode killed me.

[VartanFan]

Couldn't the Turners still petition the court to adopt May (as the adoption lady said they could)?   I get super grouchy about these kinds of adoptions.  In my experience, the courts are so obsessed with biology that they wait until a kid's life is so messed up before they allow adoptions to loving families (mental health problems, physical, PTSD, etc etc).  Of course, that's my gripe with today and in the US.  

Was Warren's mom the cousin of Valerie's who was aggressive and screaming at her with the whole Grandma thing?  I, too, cried off and on throughout the episode.  Dr. Turner breaking down was particularly powerful for me.  

[anna0852]

I know the Turners are supposed to be presented as genuinely good people and they are. But if I'm them, as soon as bio mom is out of the country I'm petitioning the courts to adopt May. She's happy and loved and stable. And the whole issue of her guardianship and her citizenship needs to be resolved ASAP.

[Kim0820]

On 5/4/2020 at 10:27 PM, lovesnark said:

I had horrible, debilitating cramps starting at about 14. Our family doctor would routinely prescribe codeine. My granny kept the bottle and would give them to me when I needed them. I went on the pill at 16 and the cramps went away. I didn't believe the doctor at Planned Parenthood when she said the pill would probably fix the cramps. I wanted to go back and thank her for being right-LOL.

I did too.  Midol and aspirin did nothing.  My mother and her family had a weird idea it was a character defect.  She finally did take me to a doctor when I was close to going away to college - I did not want to have those cramps and only have a dorm room.  

The doctor put me on the pill, (suggesting also that "having a boyfriend" would solve the problem - I don't know why sex would help with cramps?) which solved the problem entirely.  My father sent articles on the dangers of the pill (back then it had risks, but mostly for women over 35 and smokers).  He may have been afraid I would take advantage of it, but I was a shy kid for whom sex was out of the question - too scared, even knowing pregnancy would not have been a threat.    

Later in times off the pill, Advil was on the market and it did work pretty well to quash them.

I felt really bad for Sr. Frances.  Being in pain like that, especially in the middle of the night, is miserable.  At least there was a doctor lurking around!     

[BookThief]

On 4/25/2021 at 10:33 AM, Kim0820 said:

The doctor put me on the pill, (suggesting also that "having a boyfriend" would solve the problem - I don't know why sex would help with cramps?) which solved the problem entirely.

Because the contraction and release of pelvic muscles during an orgasm can help alleviate cramp pain for some people. There are a lot of doctors who really promote having period sex. I wish your doctor had just said those words instead of the euphemistic "having a boyfriend". Ick.

Edited May 6, 2021 by BookThief

[RedbirdNelly]

On 5/4/2020 at 6:53 AM, TomGirl said:

There’s a great Agatha Christie novel with that same plot.  I think it’s called “The Mirror Crack’d.”

that was the first AC book I ever read, and I've remembered ever since the impact of German Measles!

[Oosala]

On 5/4/2020 at 5:05 PM, catrice2 said:

This is funny because I felt like he was trying to get close to her so that HE could get into the medicine

Me too.  He kept complaining about some kind of pain in his shoulder.  I was wondering, wait, are we going to end up with two addicts?