S09.E07: Episode 7

[tennisgurl]

I didn't think that the sister was going to be taking care of Marion full time, I thought that Beryl was just going to be coming by to help out sometimes and show support, and that they would be getting someone to come and help out. The blind mom they met said that they should get professional help, so thats what I figured would happen. But the way these episodes are cut to absolute hell, I could be totally wrong, I legit have no idea sometimes if I know what is going on at the end of the episode! I did like that the story was complicated and that I could kind of see both sides. Beryl was being pretty awful telling Marion that she should never have a baby that it was ridiculous to even consider it and then trying to have the baby taken, but it was out of love and fear that something would happen to her sister. I get that Marion is afraid that if she admits she needs any help her sister will use it as an excuse to take her child, but just stubbornly insisting that she doesn't want anyone to help her, even as its clear she needs it, was just being selfish and stubborn, especially when even her husband got on board. I wish someone had pointed out that she didn't know Trixie at first but now trusts her because she knows her, so presumably that would happen with whoever comes to help them out because...thats how that works. 

Trixie finding that other family with the blind mom was a good idea, I hope that maybe Trixie is the one who figures out what is going on with Dr. McNulty, as she has experience with this sort of thing, and it would give her something to do this season, I feel like she has been in the background for awhile. 

The whole plot with Dr. McNulty was really weirdly over the top in ways this show usually isn't, its like we were watching two different Lifetime movies smashed together into a medical drama. We have the over the top drug addiction story, complete with stealing drugs and the friend being conflicted about telling an authority figure about the addiction, and the abusive drunk husband literally dragging a half drunk bottle of booze around with him and his wife that jumps between angry bitterness and scared misery, it was all just a whole lot. 

[willowk]

20 hours ago, MissLucas said:

That was my reading of the scene too - especially in context of the last episode. He's clearly not over what happened there and the combination of sheer unbearable emotional pain and physical pain was pushing him over the edge. Both with regards to self-medicating and trying to 'help' a patient in pain. 

That's a good take, I was thinking it was more to hurry things along as he knew he was high and so not so able to deal with a long labor or complications. He was planning to slip away when Sr. Frances told him Yvonne was about to deliver the baby. He seemed unhappy about the timing.

[theatremouse]

4 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

I didn't think that the sister was going to be taking care of Marion full time, I thought that Beryl was just going to be coming by to help out sometimes and show support, and that they would be getting someone to come and help out. The blind mom they met said that they should get professional help, so thats what I figured would happen.

I think that's what the nurses and nuns and doctor hoped would happen but I'm pretty sure it was a scene after Marion met with the other blind mom when she said something to the effect of she'd accept help but still didn't want a stranger in her house, and Trixie(?) said something like "it doesn't have to be a stranger" and then had Beryl walk in. So that implied to me they'd gotten Marion as far as cool with the idea of a "helper" but still not the NHS-provided helper. And they'd offered up her sister as an alternative. Now maybe the plan was to get her just that far for now and eventually transition to a professional helper, but I'm suggesting that only because it'd be logical, not because the scenes really did anything to confirm or deny one way or the other what the long term plan was.

[mmecorday]

I was pleased that a blind actress played Marion. When she accidentally broke the glass pitcher and had to walk across the broken glass to get to her baby I cringed. I'm glad she eventually accepted help from her sister.

I'm also glad that "Little House on the Prairie" was not airing on TV yet in 1965. I can just hear Beryl telling her sister, "Remember the episode about the blind school burning down? Mary helped all the other children get to safety and neglected her own baby, leaving little Adam to burn with Alice Garvey."

[debraran]

7 hours ago, mmecorday said:

I was pleased that a blind actress played Marion. When she accidentally broke the glass pitcher and had to walk across the broken glass to get to her baby I cringed. I'm glad she eventually accepted help from her sister.

I'm also glad that "Little House on the Prairie" was not airing on TV yet in 1965. I can just hear Beryl telling her sister, "Remember the episode about the blind school burning down? Mary helped all the other children get to safety and neglected her own baby, leaving little Adam to burn with Alice Garvey."

On LHOP, parents encouraged a blind couple (who didn't live near them at the time) to bring a baby up and things would be fine. They would have needed a sighted person to help with some things with the baby beyond the idiotic plot re the burning school. They also got sight back on LHOP, Adam did and a blind friend of Laura's.  : )

I was glad to see that actress too and also cringed while she walked on the glass. How many of us with sight have done that and always seem to miss a tiny piece?

Edited May 15, 2020 by debraran

[Dawn]

On 5/12/2020 at 3:22 PM, JudyObscure said:

It must be the director!  Maybe May and Angela have requested a more realistic reaction to "Go out and play", but the powers that be override them. 😉

Lol. I never want to criticize child actors, but the "yay!" in unison in response to everything is so silly. How about just "Okay/Yes/Hi, mommy!" once in a while? That would be much more realistic, even while maintaining their angelic characterization. 

I'm so tired of addiction story lines. I get it: it's a real issue, and can particularly be so in the medical community, but I'd so much rather they focus on the stories of the mothers and the community (which they do such a good job on!), rather than on random new doctor who just showed up.

[debraran]

So tomorrow's show is the last until?  I will miss it, having fresh new shows while others were on hiatus was nice and a great one too.

I read 2 unmarried pregnant women in this show with a twist and they will be fighting for Nonnatus House. I'm sure Dr McNulty will have a small part too and then leave us hanging until they return. I hope it's not another year. ; (

 

Edited May 16, 2020 by debraran

[AZChristian]

3 hours ago, debraran said:

. . . leave us hanging until they return. I hope it's not another year. ; (

Probably until Christmas.  They always have a Christmas special.

[dargosmydaddy]

1 hour ago, AZChristian said:

Probably until Christmas.  They always have a Christmas special.

Except they had to halt filming in the middle of this year's special, and before the rest of the season even began. Obviously Christmas is still a ways off, but who knows what kind of delays we might see to the season.

[doodlebug]

On ‎5‎/‎12‎/‎2020 at 11:54 AM, 3 is enough said:

Just wondering if the lack of Trixie-centric stroylines this season was intentional.  Helen George had a baby last year and maybe she wanted a somewhat reduced filming schedule while she was caring for her infant. 

Also, weren't episiotomies a lot more common back in the 60's?  I feel like the movement to stop performing them unless absolutely necessary didn't happen until the 1980's-90's.  So maybe that's why Dr Turner didn't notice anything amiss.  

Here in the US, back in the 60's; the vast majority of births occurred in the hospital with a physician attending.  Many, if not most, deliveries were accomplished with forceps and an episiotomy.  The thinking at the time was that shortening the pushing phase as well as cutting the perineum rather than allowing it to tear or stretch was healthier for the baby and lead to less problems with vaginal support problems/prolapse as well as urinary incontinence.  It was thought that forceps and episiotomies were protective of both the baby's head as well as the mother's vagina/bladder/bowels and uterus.  This sort of thinking persisted amongst physicians in the US until well into the 1980's.

However, things were different in Britain in the mid 60's.  Although we are seeing a lot more physicians doing in-hospital/ maternity home births; the majority of British women were still delivered by midwives and a significant number still delivered at home.  Midwives have traditionally avoided interventions such as episiotomies and, of course, were not trained to do complicated deliveries such as forceps.  Therefore, in England, episiotomies and forceps were not standard in the UK in the same way they were in the US. So, in London, at that time, I could see a midwife being concerned about an unnecessary epsiotomy and, from Sister Frances' reaction; I suspect the episiotomy was poorly placed and maybe more extensive than usual.  Also, it would usually be cut just as the head was delivering to allow the tissue to be maximally stretched and prevent bleeding.  It seemed to me that McNulty cut before the baby's head was on the perineum which would lead to a lot of bleeding from the area until it delivered.  Not good.

Nowadays, we know that shortening the second stage with forceps and episiotomies does not prevent injury to the baby and that it often leads to complications including tears involving the rectum, excessive blood loss, infection risk as well as increases the risk of incontinence and prolapse of the pelvic organs over time.  Therefore, these things are only done in unusual circumstances.

[doodlebug]

On ‎5‎/‎15‎/‎2020 at 6:20 AM, debraran said:

On LHOP, parents encouraged a blind couple (who didn't live near them at the time) to bring a baby up and things would be fine. They would have needed a sighted person to help with some things with the baby beyond the idiotic plot re the burning school. They also got sight back on LHOP, Adam did and a blind friend of Laura's.  : )

I was glad to see that actress too and also cringed while she walked on the glass. How many of us with sight have done that and always seem to miss a tiny piece?

And, of course, LHOP was based on the real Ingalls family where Mary, like a lot of blind folks, was sent away to a special school to be educated and then returned home to live with her parents; never marrying or having children as was often the case in that era.  After her parents died, Mary went to live with her sister Carrie's family for the remainder of her life.  She never lived independently; let alone married and had a child.

Even in the 1960's, it would be fairly unusual for a blind woman to marry a sighted man.  Not impossible, but not common.

[debraran]

7 minutes ago, doodlebug said:

And, of course, LHOP was based on the real Ingalls family where Mary, like a lot of blind folks, was sent away to a special school to be educated and then returned home to live with her parents; never marrying or having children as was often the case in that era.  After her parents died, Mary went to live with her sister Carrie's family for the remainder of her life.  She never lived independently; let alone married and had a child.

Even in the 1960's, it would be fairly unusual for a blind woman to marry a sighted man.  Not impossible, but not common.

Yes as a fan of the show (more earlier years) I found it odd, they had her married to a blind man and no one but Mary thinking twice about babies that would soon follow. Of course they conveniently got rid of that one and she never had another but it was odd.  It was nice there were schools to learn even back then.  I thought this article was interesting on what it was like:https://www.iowa-braille.k12.ia.us/vnews/display.v/ART/4921ebc684123

Part of it:

After Mary became blind, younger Laura spent many hours reading aloud to Mary and helping her memorize what was regarded as pertinent material. Since there was no school for the blind in South Dakota, the decision was made to send Mary to the school in Iowa, which was referred to them by a traveling missionary. Making a living was a constant struggle for the Ingalls family; money was scarce due to crop failures and illnesses. Laura helped to provide the necessary tuition for Mary by basting shirts for a total of twenty-five cents for a twelve-hour work day. An indication of the prevalent adaptability of the family can be noted in the fact that although blackbirds had devastated the family crops, Mary and her parents ate fried blackbirds during their long train ride to Vinton. They were determined to make whatever sacrifices were necessary to provide Mary with the best type of education available.

 

 

Edited May 18, 2020 by debraran

[LeGrandElephant]

On the topic of Mary Ingalls and the school for the blind, I’ve read that while the books made it sound like the family covered her tuition, in actuality the government covered most (all?) of it. I don’t recall all the details anymore but a few years ago I read the (long, dense) book “Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder” and it had a lot of interesting info about what was snd was not included in the Little House books. 
 

On topic of this episode, I too was annoyed that Dr McNulty’s addiction is so over the top and unsubtle, that the drunk husband was like a character from the Simpsons, and that Beryl wouldn’t accept the apparently free home help she’s entitled to (how many non-blind new mothers would jump at that chance?) but instead was willing to have her sister give up all her time and energy again. I thought they’d end with her accepting a home aide and Beryl also coming by to help, not with Beryl having the full home aide responsibility. And I get not wanting a stranger judging you or looking for reasons to take away your baby, but when your sister is already that judgmental and actively trying to take away your baby, maybe a stranger would actually be better. 
 

I hope they show sister Frances telling doctor turner about doctor mcnulty’s terrible episiotomy judgement. 

Edited October 10, 2020 by LeGrandElephant

[RedbirdNelly]

I had trouble following what was going on in this episode. I got that Dr. M had a drug issue but exactly what he was doing/why the episiotomy was so bad etc. was shown in a confusing manner. I guess I'm more used to shows that hit you over the head with what's going on. I got the gist but felt it could have been shown more clearly. 

I wanted someone to point out to Marion that the home health person would not be a stranger after she met them. She warmed up to Trixie. She could have at least given it a shot to see if the person was warm and became a true support to her.

[Blindness]

This episode was incredibly ableist and honestly I stopped watching CTMW after it as it is no longer a safe show for me to watch. blind parents can and do raise sighted children on their own and we don’t need help or aides to do it especially if someone takes the time to teach us how to do it in the way we learn how to do things. I don’t understand why with every other disabled mother they were treated with respect and compassion by the midwife’s who even went as far as adjusting things learning sign language ect. But the second it came to a blind mom they lost all of it. And don’t get me started on the whole “It was so hard raising my sister because she was blind.” Ever think Marion probably didn’t want help because she sensed this from her sister and internalized it as I’m the problem I’m a burden and didn’t want to be one so refusing any help at all just seemed like the better option? (Internalized Ableism) Her sister was really emotionally abusive too calling her selfish for having a baby and then Trixie has the audacity to say she should let the woman who called social services on her with the only reason being she’s blind help raise her child? No just no I don’t understand why they can learn another language/culture ect but finding out how to interact with someone whose blind or teach them something (like there were no blind schools around come on) was something they weren’t able to figure out how to do and if Trixie put in any effort like that at all she would know not to move stuff around like the chair ect.  What saddens me the most is people are going to see this episode and it will confirm their prejudices not change or challenge them.