# Call the Midwife



## Robin (Feb 22, 2015)

just watched this weeks episode, which was interesting, in that it dealt with the risks in 1960 of becoming pregnant if you were diabetic. BUT, why did we inevitably get to the bit where the poor girl was having a hypo and wailing ' It's no good on its own, I've run out of stuff, I need an injection' when her boyfriend was trying to offer her an apple and something from a bakery?


----------



## Northerner (Feb 22, 2015)

Yup! My thoughts exactly  Not that difficult to get it right, is it?


----------



## Robin (Feb 22, 2015)

At least Sister Evangelina was on hand to administer the glucogel, you can always rely on her!


----------



## Northerner (Feb 22, 2015)

I'm a bit disappointed that Trixie is letting her hair grow longer


----------



## banjo (Feb 23, 2015)

Ironically it was the first time i have ever seen it lol - is she sposed to be type 1 and aware for some time? ps only watched it cos i felt porrly with a cold and couldnt be bothered to get the tv remote lol. Lastly - if when a gypsy dies they burn them in thier caravan and some gyspsies had 11 plus kids, how did they have time to move about? wouldnt they be caravan building all the time?


----------



## Pumper_Sue (Feb 23, 2015)

Robin said:


> At least Sister Evangelina was on hand to administer the glucogel, you can always rely on her!



Haven't seen the programme, but if they used glucogel they got it wrong as it wasn't invented then.
Hypo treatment in them days was a couple of sugar lumps or sugar in warm water.


----------



## Robin (Feb 23, 2015)

Sue, I used the term loosely, what she actually said was, 'I'm going to rub some glucose powder on your cheek.' I don't know if that's an accurate reflection of treatment in 1960 or not.

Northerner, Trixie's hair seems to have gone back to the fifties.


----------



## Pumper_Sue (Feb 23, 2015)

Robin said:


> Sue, I used the term loosely, what she actually said was, 'I'm going to rub some glucose powder on your cheek.' I don't know if that's an accurate reflection of treatment in 1960 or not.
> 
> Northerner, Trixie's hair seems to have gone back to the fifties.



Hi Robin no it's not accurate


----------



## Copepod (Feb 23, 2015)

I'm going to watch on iPlayer when I have time. Surely it's more realistic to reflect the misunderstandings about the condition in 1960s, when type 1 diabetes was rarer than it is now, both because fewer people developed it and because people with type 1 diabetes tended to die younger than they do now, because the condition wasn't as well understood and because technology wasn't as far advanced - more basic insulins, no home blood glucose meters, much less informative food labelling [most bread sold wrapped in plain paper; most flour, rice, sugar in paper bags, for example] etc.


----------



## Copepod (Feb 23, 2015)

banjo said:


> Ironically it was the first time i have ever seen it lol - is she sposed to be type 1 and aware for some time? ps only watched it cos i felt porrly with a cold and couldnt be bothered to get the tv remote lol. Lastly - if when a gypsy dies they burn them in thier caravan and some gyspsies had 11 plus kids, how did they have time to move about? wouldnt they be caravan building all the time?



Interesting point about gypsy culture, Banjo. I don't know about the tradition of burning a caravan when its owner dies. However, I remember working on a children's ward at a hospital near Euston railway station in about 1986, when a traveller family, currently staying at a caravan site further north, beyond Kings Cross, brought a sick child. They left the child in the ward, when most families would have preferred to have a parents staying with a child in hospital or visit most days. As they had no phone [before mobile phones] and didn't phone in from a payphone, the ward staff couldn't keep them informed about the child's progress, but weren't unduly concerned, as they said that in the past, traveller families had always turned up the day the child was due to be discharged, and sure enough, that's what happened.


----------



## Maryanne29 (Feb 23, 2015)

I was diagnosed in 1959 when the treatment was very basic. Consequently I was often ill, following hypos or hypers. Not fun when you're a child aged four. When I think how everything has improved over the decades I'm very grateful for all the research done. Now on a pump I feel so well but sometimes surprised I survived the early days at all.

I love Call the Midwife and enjoyed the original books too.


----------



## PhilT (Feb 27, 2015)

I think the program gave the impression that the old lady was burnt in her caravan. In Gypsy tradition the deceased is actually buried but their possessions including their caravan were either buried or burnt.


----------



## Caroline (Mar 4, 2015)

I'm hooked on Call the Midwife and drive everyone mad by saying things like well they got that wrong or a new baby looks nothing like that.

These programmes are a way of getting the message across to people who will hopefully then seek medical help. Things are so much more advanced now than in the sixties and for those  inclined to do so it is so much easier to research things too.


----------



## Flutterby (Mar 10, 2015)

haha yes - very clean newborn babies!!


----------

