S10.E05: Episode 5

[Mermaid Under]

Quote

Back in the day, I had to do the heel pokes on babies, I think at that time it was only for PKU. Now there are may types of diseases they can screen for depending on where you live.

I also remember standard PKU tests on babies (note that I'm 30 years out of hospital work).   I'm glad to hear they now screen for other diseases as well.  The reasoning for screening for PKU was that if it was caught at birth, you could alter the baby's diet immediately, and avoid the developmental delays that would occur.  

And I didn't call PKU on the daughter - I thought they were heading towards an autism storyline.

 

Edited November 2, 2021 by Mermaid Under

[CrazyMoon]

7 minutes ago, Mermaid Under said:

I thought they were heading towards an autism storyline.

Autism wasn't recognized in 1966...However, Dr. Turner & Sister Julienne are very forward thinkers, so wouldn't have written Elaine off as 'retarded'. 

[JudyObscure]

23 hours ago, Maisiesmom said:

I have ever had to make. It was a "closed" adoption so I have no way of knowing what happened to her but 50 years later I still know it was the right thing to do. 

In 1968 my best friend had a baby during summer break from college, her mother didn't even know, she thought she was "spending the summer with other girls in the city."  She was actually being supported by the (possible) father.  It was a closed adoption, too, and years ago she put her name on a list that says she would like to hear from her daughter, but nothing has come of it.  

I know my friend, and you, did the right thing. People today can't imagine the stigma for both mother and child, nor the complete lack of help in the way of housing costs and medical care.  Daycares were few and far between and grandparents weren't as willing  to give up their own lives to be fulltime babysitters as they are today. 

I remember my friend telling me that she wanted to keep her baby but knew how selfish that would be. 

[Bunnyette]

On 10/1/2021 at 9:15 PM, debraran said:

Why wasn't the teen mom able to change her mind? I found it profoundly sad but is there no waiting period or grace period?

I loved this episode and how they bring in so many interesting topics and you learn so much. I know they are pushing the Trixie love affair but it's too soon and I hope he isn't shown for a bit. It wouldn't seem appropriate.

 

Not in the mid-60’s.   You handed over your baby and that was it

[susannah]

On 11/1/2021 at 12:39 PM, LittleIggy said:

I guess I’m in the minority in thinking Tim is a bit too perfect. Can’t he ever mouth off at his parents or leave a mess in the kitchen? 

He came home late one time and Dr Turner told him he couldn't see a local band called the Rolling Stones with his friends. They had an argument about that. Then Dr T borrowed Timothy's suit for the boy in the reform school for his hearing without asking, and Timothy got bent about that. I felt so sorry for the boy in the reform school. I guess his hearing was to decide whether he would get out or serve his sentence, which made no sense since he was already there. Anyway they said he would have to serve his three years, when he was remorseful, and his girlfriend just had had a baby. All he did was steal a car, once, he didn't kill anybody. Anyway that was one time Timothy acted like a normal teenager.

[dargosmydaddy]

I thought Tim used to have a lovely sarcastic streak when he was younger, and would also get a bit grossed out if his parents got too lovey-dovey in his presence. I never saw him as "perfect" or overly saccharine. To each their own.

I didn't catch the Sunday broadcast, and had to watch on the PBS website, where I was amused that the episode description was "With Sister Hilda away, Sister Julienne steps in to carry out home visits." Unless I missed something, there was no mention of Sister Hilda... maybe PBS should have edited the description along with editing the episode!

[susannah]

I agree with the others that it was ridiculous to think that no one noticed poor Elaine's condition for years. I also thought it was awful that she put her in that pen. The birth story with the teens was heartbreaking. I too thought that the girl was changing her mind after the baby was born. I don't know the law back then, here in the US, but I thought that back in the day, mothers who were putting their babies up for adoption never got to see them or hold them. I don't know if there was any grace period for the mother to change her mind. We did have homes for unwed mothers here but not mother and baby homes. I can't imagine how difficult it would have been for a mother to care for her baby for a month or two and then have it torn from her. The episode with Patsy and Chummy at the home illustrated that. It's a really hard situation with parents of minors, or it was. I don't agree with the law now that says a minor of any age has the right to choose to keep her baby and her parents, who will have to support it, have no say in the matter.

[susannah]

On 11/1/2021 at 1:40 PM, EllaWycliffe said:

Oh I get you. Tim is basically the perfect little son and I sometimes want to bitch slap him. The Turner kids in general are way too perfect and honestly, May, Angela, and Teddy are all getting a little old to not be speaking.... you'd think someone would notice....

(I know this is likely logistical, the kids don't have anything to do with the plots so they're paid to sit there and be props for the perfect family but if this show runs two more years, they might need to recast for children that can act)

I too think it is odd that none of the kids ever speak. They have had kids of that age on that were very good, like that poor little boy with vision issues and the brutal father. I like Timothy and have always thought he resembles Dr Turner. I think Miss Higgins is someone who is all business on the outside, wanting a "competent individual," but feels things deeply on the inside. Anyone would be very moved to hear the girl screaming for her baby. I also see the inevitability of Trixie and Rich Guy getting together but I don't like it. Baby Jonty is adorable.

[kwnyc]

Isn't Angela the daughter of one of the crew? They probably didn't anticipate the kids growing into actually speaking roles! I think the cast is big enough without adding them as full-on characters, and of course we get to see some amazing child actors in the course of each season.

[Rootbeer]

On 11/1/2021 at 3:10 PM, Driad said:

Questions about schooling, British vs. U.S.  adTHANKSvance!

[1] How old is Tim and how much education has he had so far? A U.S. student starting medical school would already have graduated from college/university. Is that Tim's situation, or is he about to start what the U.S. would call a pre-med undergraduate curriculum?

[2] The pregnant 16-year-old said she was about to start 6th form.  What U.S. high school grade would that correspond to?

The system of medical education is totally different in the UK.  There, a student places into a program after graduating from high school (which isn't high school, either) and enters a program for medicine which lasts around 6 years usually and would then graduate as a physician.  After that, they'd enter a training program for the specialty of their choice, but it really isn't very comparable to the way doctors do residencies in the US.  In the end, British doctors spend somewhere between 10-15 years being trained which is quite comparable to US docs.

The systems are so different that the degrees are not transferrable between countries.  A British physician who wants to practice in the US would be required to go back and do an entire residency in a US program no matter now long they had practiced in the UK.  An American physician going to the UK would have to do a program there before being licensed to practice.

Sixth form is the last part of secondary education in the UK and lasts two years.  So, she would've been equivalent to a junior in high school, typical for a US 16 year old.  Nowadays, the term 'forms' isn't used as much and students talk about what year of school they're in.  Year one would be what Americans call kindergarten, so a student ready to graduate would be year 13 and the young woman on the show would've been entering year 12.

Edited November 7, 2021 by Rootbeer

[Rootbeer]

On 11/1/2021 at 7:57 PM, MartyQui said:

Boston University has a 6 year med school program.  I worked with one of the graduates…he seemed so young, even though he had completed residency and was working on an interventional cardiology fellowship.

I was thinking that Tim would see the advent of effective chemotherapy, and combination protocols. In 1966, there were crude drugs that could perhaps help…nowadays we have targeted chemotherapy, and cancer isn’t necessarily a death sentence.

Tim will be around long enough to see AML, the type of leukemia that killed baby Jonathan's mother in a matter of weeks, become curable.  It's still one of the deadlier blood dyscrasias, but over a quarter of people diagnosed with AML will survive 5 years.  There is effective chemotherapy to control the disease and prolong life and some can be cured, usually with bone marrow transplants.

I have a friend, now early 30's, diagnosed with AML at 14.  She underwent chemo and 2 bone marrow transplants (first one didn't take).  She has been cancer free for half her life now and recently gave birth to her first child, using a donor egg since the treatment left her sterile.  Stories like hers are becoming much more common and Tim will see patients like her.

Edited November 7, 2021 by Rootbeer

[JeanJean]

On 11/1/2021 at 9:34 PM, Cetacean said:

@Maisiesmom, thank you for sharing a very private experience with us.  I can't even imagine going through that.

Yes, @Maisiesom, just wanting to hug you. 

[anna0852]

Watching Tim talk to Glen about the adoption nursery while Jeanette sobbed was heartbreaking. He's probably always thought of it as a happy place, where he saw his sister for the first time. And now he's seen the other side of Angela's story: the heartbroken mother left to wonder and cry and have her milk dried up.

[LadyChaos]

How does a baby get wee in his ears?

Did you point the penis downward before closing the nappie?

[BooksRule]

I just love Miss Higgins' matter-of-fact delivery of her lines:

Miss Higgins (To Nurse Crane, who is standing there holding a broken fan): 'It'll have to go in the stairwell. There's no room in here for redundant ironmongery.'  :) 

[BJS]

On 11/2/2021 at 1:52 PM, CrazyMoon said:

Autism wasn't recognized in 1966...However, Dr. Turner & Sister Julienne are very forward thinkers, so wouldn't have written Elaine off as 'r*******'. 

I'm reading NeuroTribes, the legacy of Autism and the future of neurodiversity by Steve Silberman. It's a fascinating history. And chapter 8 chronicles the development of work with children in England. One of the early pioneers Mildred Creak was a psychiatrist at the Great Ormond Hospital in central London in 1946. By 1961 there was an Autistic Aid Society in England founded by Lorna Wing.

Love the MIdwifes - just ran out of time to watch the show.

[Trillian]

On 3/21/2022 at 9:11 PM, LadyChaos said:

How does a baby get wee in his ears?

Did you point the penis downward before closing the nappie?

And the look on his face when she says “penis”!