When you ask them if the film captured the period, they all agree it has. Women did arrive at the baby clinic in slippers and a scarf covering the rollers in their hair. Children were always outside and men would sit and play dominoes on the doorsteps. When they were going to a birth the children always knew where it was happening and would guide the midwives if this were needed. Neighbours would come over with blankets or hot water when someone was in labour. Birth was a very public, yet also private event. Fathers did not go anywhere near their wives when this was happening and the midwives would have been horrified had they done so. Even nearly a decade after this time my father was not allowed into my birth but remembers vividly the joy of being there for my brother’s birth. 当你问起这部剧是否真实反映了那个年代,他们都很赞同。妇女们会穿着拖鞋,用围巾裹着卷发来诊所。孩子们总是呆在外面,男人们会坐在台阶上玩多米诺骨牌。当她们即将分娩时,孩子们都知道该怎么做,必要时会带着助产士过来,邻居会拿来毯子,端来热水。分娩是一件公开的事,也是一件私密的事。父亲在生产时不能和妻子呆在一起,否则会让助产士很惊慌,即使在十年后,我父亲依旧不能见证我的出生,不过我们记得很清楚,等生我弟弟就可以一同分享孩子出生时的快乐了。
Fiona remembers the fierce midwifery tutors they had and the most fierce was Sister Madeline. The student midwives would have to cycle under the River Thames to attend tutorials. Sister Madeline had a fat cat who seemed to shake with rage and was fierce like its owner. Fiona remembers her barking at the students, “What is the most important thing a new baby needs?” Usually cleanliness was given as the answer, upon which she would bark, “Rubbish, a baby cannot survive without warmth.” While the fierce Sister Madeline inspired terror in her students, once Fiona witnessed her laughing so much she was wiping away tears, but in doing so she had smeared the red pen she was using to mark students’ papers, all over her face. They never found out what was so funny but it was the answer someone had given in an exam paper to a question regarding what a midwife might find after a baby had been born at a railway station. Wouldn’t we love to know what it was? Who is Chummy? Fiona还记得脾气暴躁的助产导师们,其中最暴躁的是Madeline修女。学习助产的学生们要穿过泰晤士河参加个别辅导。Madeline修女有一只肥猫,总是愤怒地颤抖,就像它的主人一样暴躁。Fiona记得修女冲着她的学生们大吼“新生儿最需要什么?”通常下面会说清洁,“胡说,新生儿要存活下来必须要保暖”。虽然暴躁的Madeline修女会吓唬学生,但Fiona有一次看到她笑得眼泪都流出来了,她的脸上沾上了给学生判作业时用的红笔水。他们不知道是什么这样好笑,但这是有个人考试时写下的答案,考虑到一个助产士在火车站发现了一个新生儿的话。我们难道不想知道那是什么吗?谁是Chummy?
There is much debate about who Chummy is and meeting Sister Christina confirmed for me what I had always suspected, that it could be my friend Fiona. At 5 feet 11 inches, born in India and rather poshly spoken, the resemblance to Chummy is uncanny. Fiona points out however, that she could ride a bike when she arrived, though she had to be given a ‘sit up and beg’ bike which was extricated from the convent cellar by the nuns to fit her very long legs. As a child I was convinced that Fiona’s legs seemed to go on forever. The bike was called Persephone as it came from the underworld. 关于谁是Chummy有很多争论,但见到Christina修女之后证实了我一直以来的推测,她可能是我的朋友Fiona,她有五英尺十一英寸高,生于印度,谈吐优雅,她和Chummy间的相似点令人惊异。不过Fiona说她来的时候会骑车了,不过为了方便她的长腿,修女们从修道院的地窖里找出一辆自行车。我小时候一直坚信Fiona的腿会一直不断地变长。那辆自行车被称为帕尔塞福涅(冥后),因为它来自地狱(因为是从修道院的地下室里找的~)
Which stories are true? I asked the midwives which of the stories in the TV series Call the Midwife they recognised. The film producers did come and interview Fiona and Valeria and they went up to the Birmingham house where the retired nuns all live to meet them. They also took the nuns’ habits so they could accurately reproduce them. Sister Christina said the story about the birth of a baby on the boat was true but in the actual story it was the Captain’s wife, not his daughter, who gave birth. When in labour she climbed over the ship’s side to ring the midwife and then climbed back up onto the ship to give birth. The midwife had to lug her equipment up over the side of the ship too. When Sister Christina had her Jubilee (the 50th anniversary of her holy orders) the producers of the series came up to Birmingham to see what went on. This event appears in the episode where Sister Evangelina is given a pair of shoes amongst other gifts at her Jubilee. Sister Christina says the difference is she actually got an Ipad but this would not have looked very authentic in a show set in the 1950s. 哪些故事是真的呢?我问助产士们她们能从中认出几个故事。电视剧制作人确实来采访Fiona和Valeria,他们还去了Birmingham house,那些还健在的修女退休以后就住在那儿。他们记下来修女的生活习惯,这样就能精确地再现了。Christina修女说在船上接生宝宝的故事是真的,但产妇是船长的妻子而不是他的女儿。要分娩的时候,她爬出船给助产士打电话,然后又爬回来分娩。助产士也要把她们的器材拖上船。当Christina修女庆祝她入教五十周年纪念时,这部剧的制作人来Birmingham了解如何举行纪念。这段故事出现在Evangelina在她的纪念会上收到了一双鞋那一集。Christina修女说与剧中不同的是她收到的礼物是ipad,但这在一部以五十年代为背景的剧中出现太不真实了。