After reading the book called Midwives, of course, I have seen the TV series adapted from this memoir before, which is very wonderful, but after reading this book, I feel more cruel, more real and more difficult than TV series, showing the poverty and optimism of human nature that should have existed in that era. There are many similar stories in TV series and books, often with happy endings, but there are many details and real fate defects. After all, the reality of helplessness is more alienation and nowhere to escape! Being a midwife is glorious and hard, full of trust and responsibility, paying tribute to the greatness of life and the dedication to help each other in the same boat!
This story happened in the London docklands in the 1950s. This is a poor world, ordinary and dirty, messy and poor, and life is still vigorous. Jennifer happens to be the midwife of Nong Nadu Monastery. From the helplessness of escaping emotional injury to falling in love with this profession, it is because she delivered one baby after another, because the touching stories of these parents melted the love in her heart, and the lovely and amiable nuns in the monastery were full of humanity and kindness. Smart and humorous sister Monica, honest and steady sister Julian, sister evangeline with temper and courage, big and timid Masami Yokoyama, Fred who loves to do all kinds of small businesses, a picture full of vitality, affection and contradiction!
Of course, the most touching thing is the person described in the story, or anything related to production or mother. Molly was the first story to break into her memory. She is poor and used to it. A 19-year-old girl is about to give birth to her third child, but her husband is not good to her. She is pregnant and inevitably involved in domestic violence! The silly girl has given up fighting against her surroundings. The house is too dirty to live in, and the smell is too bad to spit. Two children are hiding in a dark corner like mice. They are used to violence between their parents. What kind of trauma does it have? Not far away, the mother looked at what her daughter was going through feebly, only because her son-in-law stopped her! Nineteen years old, what a beautiful and youthful life, but living a hopeless and giving up life, I hope Molly has the courage to get out of the quagmire!
Lillian is just as stupid to have a baby. She didn't come to her physiological period for five months before she thought that she might be pregnant. She was pregnant thirteen times and the fetus survived ten times. Her Lillian looked silly at the fertility clinic. She always giggles and answers serious questions. Her dirty and smelly body was disgusting, and even syphilis was found. But Lillian, who came home, looks much more normal, but her physical condition is still very poor, and the child is hopeless! She is much luckier than Molly. Although the living environment is as dirty and messy, at least there is no violent blessing, and there is a mother to take care of yourself!
Rickets, eclampsia and other diseases have aggravated the tragedy of life! Brenda is a 46-year-old pregnant woman with rickets, whose skeletal deformity is rare now, so it is difficult to see the tragic situation of body distortion and deformity in the article. In fact, rickets is due to insufficient intake of vitamin D in the diet, which leads to calcium deficiency in the bones. Tall buildings block the sunshine, so many children get rickets! Brenda got married very early, but all her four children died unfortunately. Her husband died in the war, and the children's dreams always haunt her! Now that she is married and pregnant, she has forgotten all the unpleasantness, optimism and strength. She regards all the difficulties in life as challenges, and every success is worth celebrating. Climbing up the examination bed is also the victory of her difficult arrival!
When Brenda was seven or eight weeks pregnant, it became more and more difficult to walk. She needs two crutches to support her, but she still smiles and never complains! At the thirty-ninth week of pregnancy, Brenda successfully delivered a caesarean section and gave birth to a healthy daughter! Brenda is lucky to finally have her dream child under such difficult circumstances! But Margaret was not so lucky! Musician Margaret fell in love with scientist David at first sight. They got married soon and were happy and sweet. They are like each other's soul mates, and they are lucky to meet!
Shortly after the marriage, Margaret became pregnant and David took good care of her. Everything is normal during pregnancy, and there are no ominous signs! When Margaret was rushed to the hospital, perhaps the tragedy had nowhere to escape. That morning, Margaret got up early and wanted to vomit. Unusually, the symptoms of morning sickness disappeared eight weeks ago, so she went back to her bedroom to rest. David went to work, although she was worried. After calling home at noon, no one answered, and the faint uneasiness prompted him to go home quickly. Margaret fainted on the floor of the bedroom, her mouth full of blood. It turned out to be the onset of eclampsia during pregnancy! Uninterrupted limb convulsions lead to crazy dancing of hands and feet, even biting your tongue, dripping with blood, and you can't bear to look straight! After repeated many times, I still died in my husband's arms the next night! It's like taking away a person's soul after gaining something precious. David's sadness is beyond words, and he can't bear to explore it. Healing is a person's emotional script.
I have to mention the story of Ron and Conchita. After 24 pregnancies, this woman spent all her reproductive time. She is a very happy wife and mother with children at home. Spectacular for all ages! Amazingly, Ron doesn't know Spanish, and Conchita doesn't know English, so the couple can't communicate. Daily chores need a daughter to translate, but they don't affect the feelings between husband and wife at all. To outsiders, Conchita has become a fertility machine, but the couple really like children. Even by the 24th child, they still can't put it down, and they are still their own treasures! It's really great that a woman has been juggling giving birth and raising children. What is even more rare is the joyful atmosphere of their big family. Children never quarrel or fight. It really lies in the words and deeds of parents. Ron is a patient and caring father and husband. Even after all these years, he still loves his wife and every child. Conchita loves children to the bone marrow!
In Conchita, when the twenty-fifth child was injured, there was an accident, which was also the night with the strongest smog. The vehicle cannot run completely, and the visibility may be only about one meter. But the accident happened, and it was urgent. The baby is only twenty-eight weeks old. As for how long Conchita lay on the ground while he was drying clothes, maybe only God knows. After all, Conchita was in a coma and was found when she came back from school! No matter what adults do, the baby seems to be coming out early, and the contractions are inevitably getting stronger and stronger. Conchita began to scream, which was the scariest sound the author had ever heard in his life! Conchita, who had a high fever, kept screaming, and his blind eyes were full of fear. When I was still struggling with the safety and measures of adults, I suddenly let out a scream and threw my body hard, and amniotic fluid, blood, fetus and placenta all fell on the sheets.
I thought for an instant that one corpse has two lives, but the tenacity and strength of life are showing stubbornness and persistence at this moment! Conchita's pulse was so weak that it almost disappeared. The fetus is blue all over and looks lifeless. So, all the worries are on Conchita, and everything that falls is on the cabinet! However, just when I was busy, I heard Lunn shouting "The baby is still alive". I hurried to see that the baby was really crawling in a pile of bloody Xu Dong. I immediately cleaned and warmed up, and almost drowned this little thing. This is a child who weighs only 1.4 kg, so small that people hiss!
Such a weak premature baby is bound to be sent to hospital for treatment, which is the only way given by the doctor. But when Conchita, who was weak, heard that her child was going to be taken, she resolutely stopped this behavior. She used "no" to resist all this. She protected the weak child with her mother's arms, and she firmly believed that her child would not die. Fortunately, Ron optimistically supported his wife's actions, so the child was left behind. Conchita puts the baby between her breasts, dips some milk on the baby's lips with a glass rod every half hour, and so on! For five months, the child has never left his mother, and has been sleeping peacefully in Conchita's breast! There is no precedent in this way, perhaps it is just the outbreak of maternal instinct and wisdom, great and shocking! At first, Conchita may not survive if the child is taken away by force, but having the child around will promote her rapid recovery. Surprise and sigh, the power of life complement each other.
I have to mention the story of Mary. This is a kind and poor girl. She comes from a poor family. After my father died, my mother tried her best to support this crumbling family. But how can she make a living by washing clothes for others? Everything collapsed in an instant, so my mother indulged in alcohol, which could anesthetize herself more than the despair when she was awake. She couldn't take care of the children any more, and found a man to give her shelter, but she pushed Mary to the abyss. When Mary was raped many times by her stepfather, she ran away angrily. She yearns for the prosperity and beauty of London, and it seems that sinister and difficult do not exist! After many twists and turns, Mary came to London smoothly, but she was penniless, homeless and hungry. This is the gap between reality and ideal.
When Mary met Zaghir, she thought that she had met love and happiness, but it was actually the clutches of fate. Zaghir is a liar, a person who deceives girls to do illegal things, and Mary unfortunately became his chosen person. So Mary became a station in Princesa, cheap and without dignity. What prompted Mary to escape from this place was that she was pregnant, but when she felt the peristalsis of the fetus, everything seemed beautiful and warm. Although Mary is only fourteen or fifteen years old, her maternal instinct makes her want to do her best to protect the child. Fortunately, she met the midwife, and then got a good reconciliation, gave birth to a lovely child, and was happy and peaceful at the beginning. It's just that Mary's fate is not up to her. Who will take care of their mother and daughter's future life? The best way is to send the child away, but it destroys all the strength and confidence of a woman. Mary, who couldn't find her children, collapsed and lost her luster.
A few years later, I saw the news that a baby was taken from the stroller. After many raids, I arrested a woman who was going to Ireland by boat. The woman took her baby with her when she was only six weeks old. The newspaper carried out a follow-up report, and the photo of the woman published was Mary. In these years, Mary's life still hasn't got the happiness she deserves, such as wandering, soliciting, stealing and so on. But she was always worried about the children she would never see again, which prompted her to take the baby away. Mary was only twenty-one years old when she served her sentence. Has she started? It's over!
Mrs Jenkins is another catastrophe of fate. She wandered about the street. She knew exactly when the baby was born and waited at the maternal door, hoping to get a sentence "Mother and child are safe". Mrs. Jenkins is short and thin, like a match, and her cheeks are shriveled and sunken. Where does she live? Nobody knows. In the process of accidentally taking care of Mrs. Jenkins, I gradually learned her sad story, moved and helpless! He got married at the age of eighteen and had six children. How long can this family last when the young husband vomited blood and died? At that time, Mrs. Jenkins was in her prime, working in a factory and supporting her family with her own hands. However, an accident in the machine dragged her right arm under the knife. Fortunately, she saved her arm, but after losing her job and even being allowed to beg, maybe the workhouse became the only way out!
The workhouse seems to be a humane institution, but it is the last choice for the poor. Its first principle is separation, and relatives must be separated into their own structures, so Mrs. Jenkins never saw her children again, but news of her children's death kept coming, there was no funeral, and finally her 14-year-old daughter died. In personal life, the most difficult thing is not to work, but to rest. There are more than 100 women together, including patients, weak people, and people who look crazy or insane. These people all have different knots and sorrows. In such a closed and depressed environment, normal is abnormal!
Mrs. Jenkins' story is so sad that no one can blame it, so she is the only one left. In others' eyes, Mrs. Jenkins is dirty and crazy, but how to repair her inner pain? Just like she growled in the middle of the night, venting the pain that is hard to release in her heart! She rejoices at the birth of every child. How much she misses her children! There are many stories like loneliness and sadness. I hope that after the storm, I can always see the most beautiful rainbow and heal the bleeding wounds in my heart.
At the end of the story, the great love and selfishness of human nature and all kinds of glimpses are real and helpless, but they can always find their own strength and courage, so there is no need for despair and fear. Life always has its arrangement and meaning. Always remember that life is precious and difficult at first, worthy of being loved and having all the good things! We are happy and grew up in a safe, convenient and prosperous era.
"People who understand love understand, and those who don't understand don't understand. I have pity, how can I force an answer? "