PBS's "Call the Midwife"

     Step aside "Downton Abbey."  Another PBS series has captured my attention.  "Call the Midwife" began in the fall of 2012 and ran for six episodes.  http://www.pbs.org/call-the-midwife/home/  It returns on March 31, 2013.  The show is based on the memoirs of Jennifer Lee Worth, a 1950's nurse-midwife who worked in London's East End. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Worth
     My friend clued me in to "Call the Midwife."  I expected I could watch the episodes I missed using our on-demand feature.  Alas, we can't get PBS on-demand.  It only took a few clicks of the mouse to find that I could watch Channel 12 online.  You get the full episode with only a few short commercials, and it's free.  Hurry up, because the first season is available only until April 17, 2013. http://video.pbs.org/program/call-midwife/  Besides "Call the Midwife," there are lots of other PBS shows you can watch online.  Just click the "programs" button located at the top left of the screen. The drop down box offers a multitude of options with a link to even more at the bottom of the drop down list.
     The National Health Service in the UK was established after World War II.  Nurse-midwives were an important part of the service.  They greatly reduced mother and infant mortality by bringing prenatal, labor and delivery, and postnatal care to women who, for many reasons, still delivered at home.  Though most babies in the UK are born in the hospital these days, midwives still practice. Most work through the National Health.  Some independent midwives practice, but the requirement that they be fully insured discourages independent practice.
     Mary Breckinridge started the nurse-midwife ball rolling in the United States in 1925.  She established the Frontier Nursing Service.  The service trained midwives, who were sent out on horse back, to care for women living in the remote, mountainous areas of Kentucky.  After seven years, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company conducted a study which showed that women served by the Frontier Nurses had the lowest mortality rates in the United States.  The Frontier Nursing University, established in 1939, is still open today.
     The United States is smaller than it used to be.  Most people have access to hospitals.  After the Second World War home birth fell out of favor.  Unless they are Amish, you'll be hard pressed to find a Baby Boomer who wasn't born in the hospital.  Interest in alternative birthing experiences increased in the 1990's, and interest in midwife training returned.  Today, if you want less medical intervention and would like to deliver at home, you'll have to buck the establishment.  Home delivery is not the norm, and insurance companies want deliveries to occur in hospitals.  South Jersey residents would probably have to go to northern New Jersey, Philadelphia or Wilmington to connect with a midwife.  Here's a website from a woman with a BS in nursing who went on to obtain a certificate from the Frontier School:  http://www.babycatcher.com/index.html
Here's another link to a group of midwives:  http://www.midwiferycare.org/midwife/about.html 
     Back in the 1990's, I read a book about midwifery in the state of Alabama.  Listen to Me Good is the story of Margaret Charles Smith.  http://www.awhf.org/mcsmith.html  She obtained a license to practice as a midwife in 1949 and worked until Alabama outlawed midwives in 1976.  In England, midwives were the National Health's answer to getting good medical care to all expectant mothers.  In Alabama, the midwives kept black women away from the hospitals - places that served whites only.  I got Listen to Me Good at the county library.  Unfortunately, they no longer have the book.  You can probably get it through an inter-library loan or you can buy it on Amazon. Here's the link:  http://www.amazon.com/LISTEN-TO-ME-GOOD-PERSPECTIVE/dp/0814207014/ref=rec_dp_0 
     There's an astounding difference between 1950's East End baby deliveries and Alabama deliveries during the same time period.  The PBS series and Margaret Charles Smith's book will give you food for thought on the subjects of race, access to medical care, and national health plans.  Touchy subjects, all.