Location of midwives

[Tyro49]

The secular midwives in this story are "stationed" with a group of nursing nuns. Was this the usual practice at the time, or just the particular situation of the midwife whose memoirs these stories are based on?

[Popples]

I had to consult my copy of Call the Midwife, and it seems that it was an unusual, if not entirely unique situation. 

 

 

 

Quote

Had anyone told me, two years earlier, that I would be going to a convent for midwifery training, I would have run a mile. I was not that sort of girl. Convents were for Holy Marys, dreary and plain. I had thought Nonnatus House was a small, privately run hospital, of which there were many hundreds in the country at that time.

That's the first paragraph from the second chapter "Nonnatus House".

[IrishPirate]

Living at the convent makes a certain kind of sense on several levels:

a. The nurses don't have big salaries, but if "room and board" are included, the pay won't be a huge issue.

b. In a time where not everyone had a phone, and pagers were non-existent, a common phone in the house means the midwives could respond quickly to any emergency.

c. Meals in common, trading stories and updates about cases, and you still get to date? Much better than a boarding house.

[Tyro49]

Thanks to all. 😀