Call of the Mifwife - contraception

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This episode is still on PBS to watch. It is about syphillis and the use of condoms.

Season 4 episode 4

This show does not usually get into this but occasionally it does. This is a protestant show so I guess I should expect this along with feminism.
 
What do you mean by “This is a protestant show”? As far as I am aware, television programmes are not allowed to be members of a religious denomination.
 
Nixbits said:
What do you mean by “This is a protestant show”? As far as I am aware, television programmes are not allowed to be members of a religious denomination.
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I like this show. Originally I thought it was catholic because of the nuns and then in episode, I realize they were not catholic nuns. The minister is a part of the show and was engaged to Trixie.

There have been a number of episodes with contraception and I cringe each time it comes up. This one had scenes when they were teaching use of and distribution of condoms to the prostitutes.

It is a British show, so I just think it comes from a protestant slant. I hope that I did not offend you with that comment.
 
I thought only Catholics had nuns? At least in the Western nations.

The Church of England never reestablished monasticism.

ICXC NIKA
 
gam197 said:
video.pbs.org/video/2365468212/

I

This episode is still on PBS to watch. It is about syphillis and the use of condoms.

Season 4 episode 4

This show does not usually get into this but occasionally it does. This is a protestant show so I guess I should expect this along with feminism.
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Wow! What an unfair and uncharitable characterization, and generalization, about our protestant brothers and sisters.

What you are trying to project on them are things that secularists, not Protestants, are more likely to advance.
 
In the show’s first season, as I recall, there were rather nonsensical episodes about incest and abortion. Pretty preachy, and in the case of the abortion episode, absolutely ridiculous (and see we saved the mother from the horrid botched abortion she had, and then she and her husband and lots of kids lived happily ever after thanks to some program - which they would have benefited from even if she had gone ahead to give birth to her other child. The abortion literally had nothing to do with the outcome, but the episode treated it like “yay, this baby didn’t come, and the mother survived, and now everybody is happy!” :mad:)

That episode almost made me stop watching the show. But I do have an interest in the subject, and almost no shows actually depict birth as it really can be, so I ignore the clearly agenda-driven commentary drivel that goes along with it on occasion.
Neofight said:
Wow! What an unfair and uncharitable characterization, and generalization, about our protestant brothers and sisters.

What you are trying to project on them are things that secularists, not Protestants, are more likely to advance.
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The thing is, unfortunately, that the show does this itself, by having secularist words come out of the mouths of Anglican nuns.
 
For as long as I can remember, there have been Anglican nuns. Where my grandmother grew up, on the same road there existed two convents, one Catholic, the Sisters of Mercy, and another Anglican, an extension of the same order (the Sisters of St John the Divine) which the show “Call the Midwife” is based on.

The show is based on the diaries and recollections of Jennifer Worth, however it has been expanded to included new stuff from the BBC’s imagination, though the historical authenticity is on par.

She criticised a film called “Vera Drake” that portrayed the life of a working-class performer of illegal abortions, and said that they were far from quick and painful as what was shown in the movie but rather almost always fatal for the mother as well. I don’t know if she was pro-choice or pro-life, and that’s hardly our business anymore.

The show, being historically accurate, would portray the attitudes towards contraception just as it was. Keep in mind that a lot of people in the East End of London at that time lived in poverty, and may have been fallen away from the Anglican church, and might have seen contraception as a miracle (without consideration of the moral consequences). However, I highly doubt the nuns would have - the Anglican sisterhood being mainly a high Church operation.

About the incest and other things, I don’t think the show condoned it at all. It was what happened. You really did see that in those circumstances, and you kept quiet - you didn’t concern yourselves with the lives of others in such an intimate affair. It was common for siblings to live together if they were unmarried, and in my neck of the woods it still is. I think the show perhaps could have added a more condemning air to that particular episode but for what it’s worth, the facts stand.
 
Neofight said:
Wow! What an unfair and uncharitable characterization, and generalization, about our protestant brothers and sisters.

What you are trying to project on them are things that secularists, not Protestants, are more likely to advance.
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I am talking mainly about contraception. There have been a couple of episodes when contraception as been see as a great thing. One episode with a large family at the end said something such as thank goodness that birth control was now available .

This episode shows the nun teaching and distributing condoms.

I am not trying to offend protestants but they did accept contraception at the Lambeth council in 1930 so by the 50’s there certainly would have been no problem for them to use it.

This show comes from England which is predominant Anglican so that is what I think they are just projecting. I really like the show and am not sure how many nuns there actually were in the Anglican sect but it does make a good story,

Maybe you are right that it is more secularists but I would doubt that secularists would want to promote these great nuns and minister.

I agree that I don’t think the show is promoting incest, prostitution or alcohol abuse. These are real people dealing with real issues. That is what makes the show so likable.
 
Love this show. Just got all the books and need to read. Time for a re-watch on Netflix.
 
Do you notice how they put a warning on the show as having “mature theme” because of births.

Do anyone know anything about this period in history in England. It seems odd to me. We know the US had a major population boom after the war call the “baby boomers” but did this also take place overseas in the UK and if so what other countries saw a similar event?
 
gam197 said:
Do you notice how they put a warning on the show as having “mature theme” because of births.

Do anyone know anything about this period in history in England. It seems odd to me. We know the US had a major population boom after the war call the “baby boomers” but did this also take place overseas in the UK and if so what other countries saw a similar event?
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Yes there was a post-war baby boom in the UK and it was common in Europe.

Interestingly, I think there’s an argument that the low point of births was actually in the mid-1930’s in Europe and the US (rather than the early 1940’s). There was some recovery up to the war years when many births were ‘postponed’ until the war was over so, while there was a ‘baby boom’, it was really just a return to the situation before the 30’s slump.
 
Kaninchen said:
Yes there was a post-war baby boom in the UK and it was common in Europe.

Interestingly, I think there’s an argument that the low point of births was actually in the mid-1930’s in Europe and the US (rather than the early 1940’s). There was some recovery up to the war years when many births were ‘postponed’ until the war was over so, while there was a ‘baby boom’, it was really just a return to the situation before the 30’s slump.
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I find this interesting. The US has this post war baby boom and so does Europe. It almost seems we influence each other. We have a financial meltdown, they have a financial meltdown but our financial institutes may be tied together. How could our births be?

Yet when it comes to births, you would think that each nation would do their own thing. We know that the Lambeth Council took place so birth control would have not been a problems for most protestant nations… It would seem that their population figures would have been lower.
 
gam197 said:
I find this interesting. The US has this post war baby boom and so does Europe. It almost seems we influence each other. We have a financial meltdown, they have a financial meltdown but our financial institutes may be tied together. How could our births be?

Yet when it comes to births, you would think that each nation would do their own thing. We know that the Lambeth Council took place so birth control would have not been a problems for most protestant nations… It would seem that their population figures would have been lower.
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The slow down in births in the 30’s would likely be the result of things like later marriage/household formation during the Great Depression - which was common to the US and Europe - the absence of a lot of young males from 1939-45/46 (because of the slowness of demobilisation) in Europe and 1942-1945/6 in the US and their return to marry and form households.

At that time, by the way, using the term ‘Lambeth Council’ would have more meaning to Brits as the elected Council of the London Borough of Lambeth rather than some event at the Church of England’s Lambeth Palace. 🙂
 
gam197 said:
I find this interesting. The US has this post war baby boom and so does Europe. It almost seems we influence each other. We have a financial meltdown, they have a financial meltdown but our financial institutes may be tied together. How could our births be?

Yet when it comes to births, you would think that each nation would do their own thing. We know that the Lambeth Council took place so birth control would have not been a problems for most protestant nations… It would seem that their population figures would have been lower.
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The financial systems were tied together long before. The panic of 1873 (which triggered what would then be called the “Great Depression”) began in Austria then jumped the Atlantic and spread through the Atlantic nations.

Already, in 1929, passengers on ships could receive financial news by radio and place investment orders by telegraph. Connectivity is nothing new.

The births issue is no biggie either. Less birth will take place during economic hardship, or when the young males are dying in war.

ICXC NIKA
 
GEddie said:
The financial systems were tied together long before. The panic of 1873 (which triggered what would then be called the “Great Depression”) began in Austria then jumped the Atlantic and spread through the Atlantic nations.

Already, in 1929, passengers on ships could receive financial news by radio and place investment orders by telegraph. Connectivity is nothing new.

The births issue is no biggie either. Less birth will take place during economic hardship, or when the young males are dying in war.

ICXC NIKA
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We know that in Muslim poor countries the birth rate is higher but I guess what you are saying is that in democratic countries that may be catholic or protestant, the birth rate is not affected by religion but more by economics.
 
gam197 said:
We know that in Muslim poor countries the birth rate is higher but I guess what you are saying is that in democratic countries that may be catholic or protestant, the birth rate is not affected by religion but more by economics.
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There is a difference between “poor countries” and short-term economic crisis.

Of course the poor have children, but people in crisis may defer doing so.

And such deferral is easier, of course, for those whose religion permits birth control.

ICXC NIKA
 
gam197 said:
We know that in Muslim poor countries the birth rate is higher but I guess what you are saying is that in democratic countries that may be catholic or protestant, the birth rate is not affected by religion but more by economics.
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The level of female education is a major factor - the birth rate tends to be lower in countries with more educated women. There are a number of reasons for this, of course, such as later ages of marriage/household formation and it holds true whatever the religion - hence the lower rates of fertility in countries like Turkey and Iran.
 
GEddie said:
There is a difference between “poor countries” and short-term economic crisis.

Of course the poor have children, but people in crisis may defer doing so.

And such deferral is easier, of course, for those whose religion permits birth control.

ICXC NIKA
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You would think that families in poor countries would have less but they usually have almost 2 1/2 times the birth rate of what we call 1st world countries. Is this because of religious values are so strong especially in muslim countries.

During war, the birth rate decreases but even in non-western countries, this doesn’t seem to be the case.
 
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