rachel_abby_reads's review against another edition
4.0
I've loved all three of Jennifer Worth's books. They highlight the reason I became a nurse, even if I haven't been at the delivery of a baby since nursing school. They also show me a side of life wildly different from my own. She teaches me compassion and interest and fills me with a desire to care more about the people around me, including those whose way of living seems alien and intolerable to me.
She tells horrifying stories with compassion and without judgment. She loved the poor of the East End docks, and you can tell in her writing.
She tells horrifying stories with compassion and without judgment. She loved the poor of the East End docks, and you can tell in her writing.
shahrun's review against another edition
4.0
Another fascinating instalment into life as a midwife, in East London circa 1950s. The chapter that stands out for me (and I thought I was pretty much unshockable these days was The Captain’s Daughter. My chin was scraping on the floor whole time I read that one! As usual I was in love with Chummy - delighted with her outcome! I love the final chapter too actually, where the author gave us a little bit about what happened to the Midwifes and Sisters after the book ended. But this book isn’t the end all together, as she wrote another one called In The Midst Of Life, which I hope to get onto soon.
kajsaschubeler's review against another edition
challenging
informative
tense
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Medical trauma, Blood, Death, Miscarriage, and Grief
avrilhj's review against another edition
3.0
The third and last in the 'Call the Midwife' series; like the previous two instalments this book isn't particularly notable for its prose, but is well worth reading for its absolutely fascinating glimpse into another time. Be warned, the chapters on backyard (kitchen table) abortions need a strong stomach but completely justify Worth's attitude that: "A minority of women will always want an abortion. Therefore it must be done properly." Hear that, male Catholic theologians! Another warning: if you are reading this after watching the television series you'll notice fewer happy endings. The writers cheered some of the stories up for television viewers. Not everything ends happily. The final chapter tells you where everyone ended up. I was disappointed to read Sister Bernadette's reason for leaving the Anglican Church, but glad to read about Sister Monica Joan's 'good death'. And Chummy was real!
meredith_mccaskey's review against another edition
5.0
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Nicola Barber, who, as in Shadows of the Workhouse, did a fantastic job. It took me a while to get through it because some of the subject matter was so dark it was hard to listen to.
There were two stories that stuck out most to me. The first was Sister Monica-Joan's narrative about the Contagious Diseases Act passed by Parliament in the 1860s. There was such a huge outbreak of venereal disease among the British military, and instead of expecting men to keep it in their pants, of course Parliament went after the prostitutes. (Naturally. Of course. They were a bunch of men, after all.) Any prostitute could be legally detained and forcibly examined by a special police force for signs of venereal disease, and if she had symptoms she could be imprisoned in what came to be called "lock hospitals." That's bad enough, especially considering most prostitutes were driven to their trade out of sheer desperation and poverty. What is even worse is that in practice, ANY woman walking the streets alone could be detained and "surgically raped" by these policemen and their complicit doctors, because ANY woman walking alone could be a prostitute. Upper-class women never went out alone, and so who did this target? Poor women, of course. I was in tears over the story of the young 13-year-old girl who was abused at the hands of a lecherous policeman and doctor, for over 45 minutes, because she was fetching the washing for her mother.
Sister Monica-Joan was an acquaintance of Josephine Butler, a Christian woman of the upper-classes who made it her life's work to see the Contagious Diseases Act repealed. She was fearless, speaking truth into the prudish upper classes in a time when women weren't ever supposed to talk about sex, abuse, and the brutality of men. I was so inspired by hearing about her (and angry that I'd never heard of her before– why wasn't I taught about her in Sunday school, for crying out loud?!) that I bought a short biography which is on my to-read list now!
The other story that still haunts me is the story of Hilda, who tried to have a back-street abortion. Growing up in the conservative evangelical Christian environment, I heard my whole life about how evil abortion is. And you know what? I still believe that abortion is evil– it's the murder of an innocent child. But somehow in all the articles and essays and Sunday-school lessons, somehow there was this blurring between the practice of abortion, and the women who have abortions. Women who have abortions hate life, hate babies, and are selfish and promiscuous, was the underlying tone to much of the narrative. But as I've come to realize in my adult life, the vast majority of women who have abortions are simply desperate. Hilda didn't really want to have an abortion, but she and her husband already had six children and they were living in a miserable, condemned one-bedroom flat, and the housing council refused to move them into a bigger flat because "you have to have at least a 4-bedroom flat and we aren't building any at the moment." Hilda and her husband beg to be put in a 2 or 3-bedroom flat because anything is better than what they have. But no, that's against the rules. Cue head-banging against the wall at the sheer inanity of bureaucracy.
So Hilda, out of desperation, goes to a back-street abortionist, who half kills her in trying to abort her baby. I was so struck by the fact that Hilda's next door neighbor took care of her for weeks while she was recovering, took care of her kids, cooked and cleaned for her, washed her bloody sheets. Do we, the Christian church, show such care and compassion for post-abortive women? Do we meet them right where they are at, showing them grace and mercy and love?
The story helped convince me (among other things) that Christians are approaching the abortion issue from the completely wrong angle. As long as pregnant teenagers are shamed in Christian schools and prevented from walking in their graduation ceremonies; as long as women know that they will have no long-term emotional, spiritual, (and this is the big one) FINANCIAL support from their families, friends, or churches if they choose to keep their babies, as long as churches and Christian schools and organizations and non-profits don't offer paid maternity leave or help with childcare to single moms (and that's if they don't discriminate against single moms to begin with), as long as premarital sex remains THE BIG FAT SIN that a woman should be shamed for the rest of her life, and if she gets pregnant well that's just the icing on the Shame Cake, well.... women are going to get abortions. It won't matter if we repeal Roe v. Wade. It just won't.
So how about Christians start trying to make abortion UNNECESSARY? As in, really acting as though we believe that every baby is a blessing from God, not just the babies conceived in upper-middle-class financially-stable white families. As in, we, the church, should stop trying to get laws passed and instead be pouring out our resources to single moms and poor moms and teen moms and every mom, because no mom, no matter what her circumstances, should feel like she's alone. Maybe we shouldn't be trying to outlaw abortion and at the same time taking away any kind of social safety net that single, poor, or desperate moms might have.
Well that was a rant, but five stars to the book that inspired it!
There were two stories that stuck out most to me. The first was Sister Monica-Joan's narrative about the Contagious Diseases Act passed by Parliament in the 1860s. There was such a huge outbreak of venereal disease among the British military, and instead of expecting men to keep it in their pants, of course Parliament went after the prostitutes. (Naturally. Of course. They were a bunch of men, after all.) Any prostitute could be legally detained and forcibly examined by a special police force for signs of venereal disease, and if she had symptoms she could be imprisoned in what came to be called "lock hospitals." That's bad enough, especially considering most prostitutes were driven to their trade out of sheer desperation and poverty. What is even worse is that in practice, ANY woman walking the streets alone could be detained and "surgically raped" by these policemen and their complicit doctors, because ANY woman walking alone could be a prostitute. Upper-class women never went out alone, and so who did this target? Poor women, of course. I was in tears over the story of the young 13-year-old girl who was abused at the hands of a lecherous policeman and doctor, for over 45 minutes, because she was fetching the washing for her mother.
Sister Monica-Joan was an acquaintance of Josephine Butler, a Christian woman of the upper-classes who made it her life's work to see the Contagious Diseases Act repealed. She was fearless, speaking truth into the prudish upper classes in a time when women weren't ever supposed to talk about sex, abuse, and the brutality of men. I was so inspired by hearing about her (and angry that I'd never heard of her before– why wasn't I taught about her in Sunday school, for crying out loud?!) that I bought a short biography which is on my to-read list now!
The other story that still haunts me is the story of Hilda, who tried to have a back-street abortion. Growing up in the conservative evangelical Christian environment, I heard my whole life about how evil abortion is. And you know what? I still believe that abortion is evil– it's the murder of an innocent child. But somehow in all the articles and essays and Sunday-school lessons, somehow there was this blurring between the practice of abortion, and the women who have abortions. Women who have abortions hate life, hate babies, and are selfish and promiscuous, was the underlying tone to much of the narrative. But as I've come to realize in my adult life, the vast majority of women who have abortions are simply desperate. Hilda didn't really want to have an abortion, but she and her husband already had six children and they were living in a miserable, condemned one-bedroom flat, and the housing council refused to move them into a bigger flat because "you have to have at least a 4-bedroom flat and we aren't building any at the moment." Hilda and her husband beg to be put in a 2 or 3-bedroom flat because anything is better than what they have. But no, that's against the rules. Cue head-banging against the wall at the sheer inanity of bureaucracy.
So Hilda, out of desperation, goes to a back-street abortionist, who half kills her in trying to abort her baby. I was so struck by the fact that Hilda's next door neighbor took care of her for weeks while she was recovering, took care of her kids, cooked and cleaned for her, washed her bloody sheets. Do we, the Christian church, show such care and compassion for post-abortive women? Do we meet them right where they are at, showing them grace and mercy and love?
The story helped convince me (among other things) that Christians are approaching the abortion issue from the completely wrong angle. As long as pregnant teenagers are shamed in Christian schools and prevented from walking in their graduation ceremonies; as long as women know that they will have no long-term emotional, spiritual, (and this is the big one) FINANCIAL support from their families, friends, or churches if they choose to keep their babies, as long as churches and Christian schools and organizations and non-profits don't offer paid maternity leave or help with childcare to single moms (and that's if they don't discriminate against single moms to begin with), as long as premarital sex remains THE BIG FAT SIN that a woman should be shamed for the rest of her life, and if she gets pregnant well that's just the icing on the Shame Cake, well.... women are going to get abortions. It won't matter if we repeal Roe v. Wade. It just won't.
So how about Christians start trying to make abortion UNNECESSARY? As in, really acting as though we believe that every baby is a blessing from God, not just the babies conceived in upper-middle-class financially-stable white families. As in, we, the church, should stop trying to get laws passed and instead be pouring out our resources to single moms and poor moms and teen moms and every mom, because no mom, no matter what her circumstances, should feel like she's alone. Maybe we shouldn't be trying to outlaw abortion and at the same time taking away any kind of social safety net that single, poor, or desperate moms might have.
Well that was a rant, but five stars to the book that inspired it!
megsmar14's review against another edition
5.0
This book like the others in the series is amazing historical memoir. I think this is so true to life as a nurse and while culture differ as time goes on; the raw lives of people with which nurses deal are still the same. A doctor I work with said that if he were a nursing instructor that he would make it required reading for student nurses. After readying these books, I think I would at least make them a highly recommended reading for my students.
SPOILER
There was a chapter that was very explicit about back street abortions. I normally don't have a problem with such details but that was so sad and horrifying. I actually had a somatic response with my blood pressure dropping. It was something that needed to be added though. Those types of details are what nurses deal with on a regular basis.
This book was a great read and very interesting.
SPOILER
There was a chapter that was very explicit about back street abortions. I normally don't have a problem with such details but that was so sad and horrifying. I actually had a somatic response with my blood pressure dropping. It was something that needed to be added though. Those types of details are what nurses deal with on a regular basis.
This book was a great read and very interesting.
blurrybug's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed how this wrapped up the story of her career and how it put a spotlight to certain social issues of the time.
tanis_placeway's review against another edition
4.0
I’ve really enjoyed reading through this series. Each book has been a bit different from the last, but Farewell to the East End has a much darker tone than the first two memoirs. This book gets into some of the politics of the 19th century in the U.K. and also contains some really horrific personal stories, a far cry from the more “feel good” atmosphere of her first two books.
I really enjoyed the more academic tone this book took. I still thing the original Call the Midwife is my favorite, but this is a close, though wildly different, second.
I really enjoyed the more academic tone this book took. I still thing the original Call the Midwife is my favorite, but this is a close, though wildly different, second.
kristafoley18's review against another edition
3.0
Call the Midwife is a good trilogy. Shocking, sweet, engaging, quaint, and powerful at times. I liked the whole trilogy overall, 3.5 stars. I really loved the tv series too.
This book was a good read like the other two, nice stories, truths and lessons throughout. An insightful read, makes me definitely appreciate the times I live in now, with women rights and medical advancements.
The friendships between the ladies were all sincere and supportive. Despite the challenges in their jobs, they were strong and kind women together.
Not light reading (though overall it was an easy read). Some heavy topics of abortion, prostitution, tuberculosis, and more. It's an interesting, well written, and, at times, shocking book.
3.5 stars
This book was a good read like the other two, nice stories, truths and lessons throughout. An insightful read, makes me definitely appreciate the times I live in now, with women rights and medical advancements.
The friendships between the ladies were all sincere and supportive. Despite the challenges in their jobs, they were strong and kind women together.
Not light reading (though overall it was an easy read). Some heavy topics of abortion, prostitution, tuberculosis, and more. It's an interesting, well written, and, at times, shocking book.
3.5 stars