S14.E08: Episode 8

[Sarah 103]

14 hours ago, eel2178 said:

I'm pretty sure by 1970 we weren't using "the rabbit died" method anymore.

The "rabbit died" method was used to determine whether or not a woman was pregnant but it did not reveal how far long the pregnancy was, just whether or not she was pregnant. 

Edited May 20 by Sarah 103

[iMonrey]

1 hour ago, proserpina65 said:

I enjoyed that and actually hoped it would make Catherine change her mind about becoming a nun.  I know the show presented it as a good thing, but all I could think about was what a waste of her life it was.  I know she'll still be a nurse and midwife, but the religious life seems so wrong to me.

I was surprised when she took off her head covering. When sister Julienne saw them I thought she might get into trouble. 

[anna0852]

7 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I was surprised when she took off her head covering. When sister Julienne saw them I thought she might get into trouble. 

I think since she hadn’t made her final vows yet, taking off the head covering was OK.
 

I would’ve loved to have seen Shelagh and Patrick discussing how they would ensure their daughters were never caught as unaware as that poor teen mom. Maybe even a mention from Dr. Turner about making sure they have access to birth control.

[Driad]

In the remaining seasons, maybe there will be fewer home births and more caring for people in the community (including seeing elderly and disabled people at their homes).  I like to see a variety of cases.

[3 is enough]

3 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

 

I liked Nancy's wedding (and thought her hair looked fabulous just as it was), but I did question she and Roger not taking precautions.  She is a nurse midwife, after all.

Maybe they were taking precautions but they failed. My third child was the result of  a faulty condom. And no, it was not obvious at the time that it had failed. 
That would also explain why Nancy did not think she was pregnant right away. 
There may have been a deeper discussion in one of those infamous deleted scenes.

[DianeM]

On 5/18/2025 at 7:44 PM, Quilt Fairy said:

No surprise, Nancy decided since she couldn't have a white wedding dress she'd go for an orange one. 

I thought that was quite an ugly dress, and the children wore it too.  Couldn't she have found a blue or lavender?  Orange is very odd for a wedding dress.

[Notabug]

18 hours ago, eel2178 said:

When did we start using the blood hCG level to determine how far along the pregnancy was?

I'm pretty sure by 1970 we weren't using "the rabbit died" method anymore.

The biggest difference between the rabbit test and the most common test in 1970 was the development of in vitro testing instead of in vitro.  The original rabbit test meant injecting the rabbit with the patient's urine, waiting a few days, then killing the rabbit in order to look at it's ovaries for signs of exposure to HCG.  A pretty unwieldy method.   By 1970, a packaged version of similar testing using antibodies from the blood of pregnant sheep made the testing less cumbersome and a result was available in a couple hours.  These tests also interacted with other hormones such as LH which resulted in a fairly high risk of false positive results.

The radioimmunoassay pregnancy test, which revolutionized pregnancy testing, was developed in the mid 60's but still not widely available in the US anyway, until the 1980's.  When I started my residency, the nurses in our clinic still did pregnancy testing in which they mixed various reagents with the urine and then stirred the specimen. looking for clumps of antibody/antigen to form to indicate a positive test.  Time consuming and easy to misread the results.

Home pregnancy testing came on the market in the US in the early-mid 80's but were available in other countries sooner because religious conservatives here believed that women should not have the information without a doctor immediately present to explain it to her.

For those who remember the original RIA home tests, they were far more complex than the no-brainer tests we use today.  There were often several small test tubes involved and the woman had to compare colors with a guide.  As I recall, if it was pale lavender, it was positive.  Pale pink was negative.  I had many patients come into the office with their little test tubes asking me to help them determine if their test was pink or lavender.  I usually had no idea and sent them to the lab for blood testing.

[Capricasix]

Thank goodness for POAS (pee-on-a-stick) tests! 😄

[Badger]

On 5/18/2025 at 7:58 PM, Straycat80 said:

The Paula story was sad but I wish they hadn’t injected the birth scenes with Sister Catherine’s vow ceremony which I thought was beautiful. And at least we found out why her father was against her being a nun (abused by nuns as a child).

Side eyeing Nancy for not going to a doctor knowing she was pregnant and her being a nurse. Also strange why they waxed over Trixie still being in the UK while her husband and stepson are in America. 
I have nothing against intra-racial relationships but Cyril and Rosalind do not have any chemistry. 

FWIW, they cut out a scene at the beginning with the nuns and midwives at recreation.  Joyce wonders where Nancy and Colette are since they have to prepare for the wedding.  Trixie says she's probably using her as an example since she had everything planned to the last detail and you know how that went.  Sr. Veronica says Trixie;s wedding was very nice in the end.  Phyllis observes that it's too bad Trixie won't be at Nancy's wedding; after all, she had been a bridesmaid at Trixie's.  Trixie says she is going to be a bridesmaid at Matthew's partner's wedding.  She says there will be 14 in sugared almond shades with a pure lace trim, and she couldn't decline the honor.  To which Joyce points out that's the problem with living on two sides of the ocean: you can't be two places at once.

[Quilt Fairy]

On 5/19/2025 at 7:11 AM, Jodithgrace said:

As soon as I saw Reggie’s broken vase and Geoffrey talking about the Japanese art of Ikibana, I knew that he was going to repair with it with gold, though the examples I’ve seen of kintsugi, the repairs are much more subtle. That vase was pretty ugly! 

I thought Reggie's vase was beautiful!  I was just worried that with PBS's weird edits we wouldn't get to see it at all. 

 

[caitmcg]

1 hour ago, Badger said:

Trixie says she is going to be a bridesmaid at Matthew's partner's wedding.  She says there will be 14 in sugared almond shades with a pure lace trim, and she couldn't decline the honor.  To which Joyce points out that's the problem with living on two sides of the ocean: you can't be two places at once.

And there is the missing context for Trixie rolling off with all her luggage and her brother remarking, "I've always loved you in sugared almond." It was all rather a non sequitur in what we saw.

[Capricasix]

18 hours ago, 3 is enough said:

There may have been a deeper discussion in one of those infamous deleted scenes.

Having seen the unedited version (on Dailymotion), I can confirm that there was no further discussion.

[Shanna Marie]

On 5/20/2025 at 11:59 AM, Notabug said:

Even if she wasn't eligible for getting a prescription purely for contraception, Nancy's menstrual history would've been a medical indication for it.

I wonder if it's a case of her being Catholic enough to feel like using birth control would be wrong but not Catholic enough to avoid pre-marital sex. I don't think she was an actively practicing Catholic, but she still was Catholic enough for his mother to object to her and enough that she identified as Catholic. There's also the weird mindset that if sex just happens, it's not as bad as if you actually plan to have sex and make preparations, and a girl brought up in a Catholic orphanage probably has a lot of mixed-up feelings about sex.

[anna0852]

I’m re-watching and I just love the moment when the woman in curlers comes banging on the door. And you think she’s about to storm in all angry as heck, give her unmarried daughter hell about having had a baby.
 

And instead, in true gruff East End fashion, tells her daughter to bring the baby home. She can see the family nose on him and he might as well live in the family house. They’ll pull out the cot and make the best of things. It was just such a lovely moment!

And a marked dichotomy to poor Paula, who gave birth with (kind) strangers and her parents miles away with their metaphorical fingers in their ears.

And while it was a bit of a soapy storyline, I did love that when Nancy finally told Phyllis, Millicent and Violet her news she was met with nothing but congratulations and (concerns for her health). I guarantee you she did not get that reaction when the authority figures learned of her pregnancy with Colette. I still think it’s a flipping miracle that she managed to keep Colette.

Edited May 22 by anna0852

[debraran]

On 5/20/2025 at 11:46 AM, Notabug said:

On the other hand, her clothes would've been highly atypical for a gay woman in the early 70's.    Even if Helen preferred to dress in men's clothing, she wouldn't be that overt about it in public.  Gay people weren't 'out' publicly in that time; they risked discrimination.  She would've had trouble getting or keeping a job, renting an apartment, or simply living in peace if she regularly appeared in menswear in public.  If the show was using her clothing as a sign of her sexuality; it was completely anachronistic.  We've seen the nuns at Nonnatus House be extraordinarily accepting of people from all walks of life; but there's no way they wouldn't have a problem with a woman wearing mens' suits daily.  Mrs. Buckle wouldn't have been comfortable with it, either.  There was plenty of reason not to try to stand out as different in that era.

I will say the late 60's-early 70's were a time when most of us went thrifting.  I bought much of my clothing from rummage sales, Goodwill, Army surplus, etc.  I had about half dozen men's shirts handed down from my cousins and a neighbor that I wore regularly.  Not to church, though.

Perhaps she bought it from an Army surplus?  That was where I and many of our friends bought them in that era.

I LOVED my pea coat in the 70's. I remember leaving it on a friends bed and her cat peed on it, I was devastated and her brother's stupid joke about it didn't help. One dry clean bill later, I was happy again. : )   Very popular coat at the time

[debraran]

On 5/20/2025 at 11:10 AM, Ancaster said:

Yes, from 1967.  (1961 for married women.)

yes, it was much higher dosage of things back then but they have made them safer.

I did find it interesting how far back interacial relationships went in the UK, even royalty. People talk but you saw much more resistance in the US where you could be attacked or worse and they actually had laws against it. Ridiculous. When someone says you should hide because others might not like it, it took many brave people to change that. I had many moments in US, friends didn't have in UK (or as many) but time can be slow at times. Getting to know more people from all over the world, gave me perspective on how progressive and not so progressive we were in states over the years.

[Ancaster]

3 hours ago, debraran said:

yes, it was much higher dosage of things back then but they have made them safer.

I did find it interesting how far back interacial relationships went in the UK, even royalty. People talk but you saw much more resistance in the US where you could be attacked or worse and they actually had laws against it. Ridiculous. When someone says you should hide because others might not like it, it took many brave people to change that. I had many moments in US, friends didn't have in UK (or as many) but time can be slow at times. Getting to know more people from all over the world, gave me perspective on how progressive and not so progressive we were in states over the years.

Ah yes, the proud history of illegal mixed race marriage in the US.  Fun fact: Alabama was the last state to drop laws against miscegenation* - in 2000.

* Sex or marriage between people of different races

[Quilt Fairy]

On 5/21/2025 at 10:14 PM, anna0852 said:

I guarantee you she did not get that reaction when the authority figures learned of her pregnancy with Colette. I still think it’s a flipping miracle that she managed to keep Colette.

She didn't keep Colette originally.  The nuns sent her to an orphanage in England and Nancy became her "older sister". 

[anna0852]

1 hour ago, Quilt Fairy said:

She didn't keep Colette originally.  The nuns sent her to an orphanage in England and Nancy became her "older sister". 

I know she didn’t keep her in the traditional sense. But she wasn’t forced to place her for adoption either and apparently retained enough custody that she was able to pull Colette out of the orphanage without the nuns being able to stop her.

[Notabug]

13 hours ago, anna0852 said:

I know she didn’t keep her in the traditional sense. But she wasn’t forced to place her for adoption either and apparently retained enough custody that she was able to pull Colette out of the orphanage without the nuns being able to stop her.

Yes, I found it a bit confusing, if not historically inaccurate, that Nancy was somehow able to retain some legal rights to Colette.  Everything I've seen about the Catholic homes for unwed mothers seemed to indicate that the girls had no control over their babies' fates and were coerced into surrendering them for a closed adoption with virtually no chance of ever seeing them again.