Call the Midwife

It feels like it’s been an age since the last season of Call the Midwife ended, even if it was only several months ago in reality.

The medical drama follows the story of a group of nurse midwives and nuns who care for the residents of the economically disadvantaged neighborhood of Poplar. Call the Midwife, of course, is so much more than that though – really digging into the personal stories of all the different women involved. (It’s also great if you happen to need a good cry for whatever reason.)

As TV fans go, Midwife viewers are pretty lucky. Though there are some big cast changes headed our way next season, the series has already been renewed through Season 9. (The upcoming run of the drama will only be the series’ seventh season.) If you love the midwives, you’ve got a lot to look forward to over the next few years.

The drama recently wrapped production on Season 7, and posted a pretty adorable cast photo to mark the occasion to its social media accounts. 

No sooner have we dried our tears from Sunday night’s season finale then comes the announcement that several of the Call the Midwife cast are quitting the show. The Radio Times reports that Bryony Hannah, Emerald Fennell and Kate Lamb will not be returning to Poplar.

If I were to use one word to describe this week’s season finale of Call the Midwife it would be “emotional." Whether brought on by hormones or resulting from events both tragic and joyous, if you didn’t cry during this episode you may not be human. It was jam packed with sentiment and served as a lovely gift for those fans who endured the dark days of Sister Ursula earlier in the series.

At one time or another most parents have experienced the pain of seeing their kids bullied or excluded, but the families featured in this week’s episode of Call the Midwife have got long-term struggles on their hands. In a related story, one of our most committed midwives undergoes a serious crisis of confidence. And Trixie learns that caution can be mistaken for dishonesty.

As always, if you want to peruse last week’s events before moving on, you can find that recap here.

This week’s episode of Call the Midwife finds Poplar immersed a state of heightened anxiety. As the Cuban Missile Crisis looms, Sister Mary Cynthia continues to struggle with her recovery and an expectant mother finds the ways of her culture clash with those of her newly adopted home.

One thing leads to another on this week's Call the Midwife. Treating a maternity patient with serious dental issues results in romance for Nurse Franklin. The Buckles take in a young man with special needs who has nowhere to go and, in the process, we also discover that what the Mother House calls a “place of greater safety”, is nothing of the sort for Sister Mary Cynthia.

Despite the backdrop of a close-knit community celebrating the opening of a new park with maypole dances and chariot races, tragedy or near-tragedy dominates in this week’s Call the Midwife. Mothers who can’t bear children are juxtaposed against those who can but can’t afford to keep them.

In this week’s episode of Call the Midwife, Sister Ursula’s obsession with efficiency contributes to a near fatal oversight. The Turners' maternity home faces the threat of closure and Shelagh suffers a dangerous setback in her miraculous pregnancy. Finally, a sorely missed member of the Nonnatus crew returns to Poplar, but brings with her troubling questions about another of their number.

If you feel a bit fuzzy about where we left off last time, you can get up to speed with our previous recap here.

The new season of Call the Midwife continues this week, as the regime of Sister Ursula goes on; the confiscating of candy from an elderly nun being just one example of her new, lean approach. The troops, however, are getting a bit mutinous. We’ve always known that the Nonnatus family is completely dedicated to their patients and their community. But when their new leader decrees that they concentrate on the nursing aspect and basically abandon their other support functions, the ladies are just not having it. Also this week we meet two couples who face uncertain times and call on the midwives to help them navigate the challenges.

Welcome back to Call the Midwife Season 6!

Rest assured there's going to be a measure of heartbreak and hardship in store for us in the months ahead. So grab a cocktail of your choice (Grasshopper or Brandy Alexander with condensed milk for a velvety, luxurious taste, anyone?) and if you're feeling the 1962 vibe, let's review the highs and lows of this week's Call the Midwife episode.