Week Twelve: Call the Midwife

About a year ago I had the opportunity to watch a British TV Show called “Call the Midwife”.  I found it quite fascinating in seeing how the show portrayed midwifery in England.  There was humour and drama and of course a just a hint at a love angle.  I just finished reading the book “Call the Midwife  A Memoir of Birth, Joy and Hard Times” by Jennifer Worth.  The book is based on Jennifer’s memories as a midwife in post war London’s East End.  It was an easy read and a real page turner.  I could not wait to see what would happen next.  (It reminded me of the fabulous James Herriot books – describing the actual job, the co-workers, the local scenery and more importantly the local characters.)

  

 Granted the book was not based in Cheshire where our ancestors are from, but it made me wonder if any of the women in our tree was a midwife.

Sarah Palin was born in Middlewich in 1843 to William Palin and Margaret Arkinstall.  Sarah was the eldest of nine children and there were 20 years between her and her youngest sibling.  I can only imagine how much her mother may have counted on Sarah for helping with her younger siblings.  Three of her siblings had died in their first year of life.

                                                                         

Sarah then marries John Venables in 1863 and has seven children with him over the next 20 years.  According to the 1871 and 1881 census John’s occupation was first a teamsman then a salt boiler and Sarah was listed as wife.

John dies in 1889 and in the 1891 census we find Sarah listed as a widow with four children at home the youngest being seven years of age.

Later that year in 1891, Sarah remarries to a William Yarwood.  Unfortunately, William dies in 1899.

In the 1901 census we find Sarah again listed as a widow but this time an occupation is given as a weekly sick nurse.  There are three children living at home.

In the 1911 census, Sarah, still a widow, is now 68 years of age and her occupation is listed as midwife.  She is living with her youngest daughter and her husband or really I should say they are living with her as Sarah is listed as head of the household.

Sarah then dies in 1915.  We have a wonderful picture of her in a four generation shot that was taken approximately two years before she died.  This is another one that I would love to share a pot of tea with.   I am sure she would have had quite a few stories to tell!

See Sarah on the tree here

Midwifery is not for the faint of heart, there can be so many complications and yet having a baby in the hospital is not always safer.   I thought I would go and see if I could find the maternal mortality rates and to be honest I was shocked with what I had found.  I thought since medical sciences and procedures had improved so much over the years that the maternal mortality rate would be small in developed countries.    I was so wrong! 

This is a table that I found from a link on the The Guardian UK website dated 2010.  These numbers are per 100,000 births.  I guess comparatively speaking the numbers are not that high – but it was still a shock to see that the UK and USA were not high on the list!

MMR global rank	Country	MMR 2008	MMR 1990	Annual % change 90-08
1	Italy	3.9	7.4	-3.5
2	Sweden	4.6	6.3	-1.7
3	Luxembourg	4.8	6.6	-1.8
4	Australia	5.1	6.3	-1.3
5	Austria	5.5	8.0	-2.1
6	Ireland	5.7	6.8	-1.0
7	Israel	5.9	10.5	-3.2
8	Malta	6.3	15.0	-4.7
9	Canada	6.6	5.7	0.9
10	Spain	6.7	8.8	-1.5
11	Japan	6.8	11.7	-3.0
12	Czech Republic	6.9	12.3	-3.2
13	Germany	7.0	11.6	-2.8
14	Slovakia	7.0	13.4	-3.6
15	Hungary	7.1	16.3	-4.6
16	Iceland	7.1	9.3	-1.5
17	Finland	7.2	7.3	-0.1
18	Poland	7.4	21.5	-5.8
19	Switzerland	7.4	7.0	0.3
20	Netherlands	7.6	9.2	-1.0
21	Norway	7.6	6.8	0.6
22	Albania	8.1	36.0	-7.9
23	United Kingdom	8.2	8.4	-0.1
24	Greece	8.4	7.6	0.6
25	New Zealand	8.5	10.7	-1.3
26	United Arab Emirates	8.6	30.9	-6.9
27	Serbia	8.9	11.8	-1.6
28	Denmark	9.4	7.1	1.5
29	Belgium	9.5	8.3	0.8
30	Portugal	9.5	16.2	-2.9
31	France	10.0	14.2	-1.9
32	Korea, South	11.4	18.3	-2.6
33	Bosnia and Herzegovina	11.8	32.3	-5.4
34	Croatia	14.1	14.5	-0.2
35	Qatar	14.3	48.8	-6.6
36	Taiwan, Province of China	14.3	26.1	-3.3
37	Singapore	15.7	12.2	1.4
38	Lithuania	16.0	22.4	-1.9
39	United States	16.7	11.5	2.1
40	Macedonia	16.7	20.0	-1.0