This isolation and sleep deprivation made me miss my mum even more. I couldn’t call her to ask small questions, like “How do you breastfeed a baby and play with a toddler at the same time,” or big questions, like “How did you do it all?” I couldn’t text her the picture of my daughter’s proud smile the first time she held her little brother. I couldn’t call her crying when I was overwhelmed and just needed her to listen, to let me get it all out so I could keep going.
Each season takes place over the course of a single year. The show is now in its 12th season, so it has covered the late 1950s through the end of the 1960s.
It’s also the women of Nonnatus House who advocate for the women they serve – including the access to contraception and abortion – because it’s these same women who have watched the horrors of unsafe abortion, who have treated the women haemorrhaging and dying after a botched procedure, who have seen the consequences of women being forced to have babies.
Like in real life, characters – including the original protagonist, Jenny Lee – leave because they move or change professions or get married or have babies or, like Barbara , they die. Sometimes they even leave to seek help for mental health issues, such as this season when Lucille returns to Jamaica because of the depression she experiences after the grief of a miscarriage and pressures of racism and xenophobia.
I started binge-watching Call the Midwife because it gave me a sense of community that I lacked during the pandemic, but I continue watching it because it is a reminder of the burdens and gifts of motherhood. During my daily life with two young children – now 4½ and 3 – it is often impossible to take the time to feel this.