The Midwife by Jennifer Worth
Reading Jennifer Worth's memoir is rather like watching the TV series based on it, partly because Vanessa Redgrave's voiceovers are lifted directly from the book. (I hope Worth liked Redgrave's voice, because I heard it the whole time and read the book at about the pace she speaks.) Like the TV series, the book is about Worth's time as a midwife working out of a convent in London's East end in the 1950's.
The book is pretty light and easy to read, despite rather graphic descriptions of childbirth, medical issues, and living conditions. Most stories in it are self-contained, telling the story of either a patient or an event at the convent, though the stories of Mary, a young Irish prostitute, and Mrs. Jenkins, the local "madwoman" who spent 20 years in a workhouse get several chapters each. One notable difference between the book and the TV series is that Worth doesn't spend a lot of time talking about her fellow midwives, though she does talk about the nuns a fair bit.
One issue I had is that, whether it was the eyes of nostalgia or a case of generation/class, despite her descriptions of the harsh conditions people lived in in the tenements and their troubles with health and work, she tends to primarily portray them as cheerful and content in their lot and never wanting anything more, and I sometimes wanted to reach into the book and explain that probably not a single person in the area who didn't live in her convent would stay there if they had a choice and could take their family with them. Still, I found the book to be very enjoyable, and exceptionally interesting when Worth would muse on the changes to medical practices in the 20th century, both before and after her time as a midwife.
The book is pretty light and easy to read, despite rather graphic descriptions of childbirth, medical issues, and living conditions. Most stories in it are self-contained, telling the story of either a patient or an event at the convent, though the stories of Mary, a young Irish prostitute, and Mrs. Jenkins, the local "madwoman" who spent 20 years in a workhouse get several chapters each. One notable difference between the book and the TV series is that Worth doesn't spend a lot of time talking about her fellow midwives, though she does talk about the nuns a fair bit.
One issue I had is that, whether it was the eyes of nostalgia or a case of generation/class, despite her descriptions of the harsh conditions people lived in in the tenements and their troubles with health and work, she tends to primarily portray them as cheerful and content in their lot and never wanting anything more, and I sometimes wanted to reach into the book and explain that probably not a single person in the area who didn't live in her convent would stay there if they had a choice and could take their family with them. Still, I found the book to be very enjoyable, and exceptionally interesting when Worth would muse on the changes to medical practices in the 20th century, both before and after her time as a midwife.