Call the Midwife

A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times

By: Jennifer Worth

Narrated by: Nicola Barber

Length: 12 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Nominee, Solo Narration - Female, 2013

At the age of 22, Jennifer Worth left her comfortable home to move into a convent and become a midwife in postwar London’s East End slums. The colorful characters she met while delivering babies all over London - from the plucky, warm-hearted nuns with whom she lived to the woman with 24 children who couldn't speak English to the prostitutes and dockers of the city’s seedier side - illuminate a fascinating time in history. Beautifully written and utterly moving, Call the Midwife will touch the hearts of anyone who is, and everyone who has, a mother.

©2002 Jennifer Worth (P)2012 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

"A charming tale of deliveries and deliverance." ( Kirkus Reviews)

Call your friends!

This book is wonderful. I saw the shows first. This is just and added touch. Nicola Barber is excellent in her narrative. She takes you down the streets on a bicycle and into a poverty ridden tenement, with all the dirty little children. Then she becomes all the characters in the room. Call all your friends to tell them about these books. Jennifer Worth is so good at what does. You won’t regret having bought this book.

EXCELLENT

The narrator is phenomenal. I loved this just as much as the TV show.

Produced and read well

I enjoyed the story of the Midwives and the information given about the nuns and the English social state. I was surprised at how that state let the people down when it came to housing and clean up but I was impressed with the midwives and the work they did. The only negative I have is the story would jump around and listening on audio you must pay attention because they happen quickly. One moment you will be in WW2 and the next discussing birth control options in the 60’s. This is a minor annoyance.

A fun, fast read.

I enjoyed every minute of this well written, and well performed book. You will too.

The stories of some English midwives in the 1950s

I admit I am a fan of the TV show of the same name. When Call the Midwife popped up as a recommended read, I jumped on it and I was not disappointed. I wasn't aware that the show was based on the memoirs of the author but that certainly made it even more enjoyable for me. To be honest, being born in the 1950s was another reason that I connected with this book. Born in a large city in the US and in a hospital run by nuns, I'm quite covinced that my mother did not go through many of the the hardships the women described in the book endured. After all, mom was in a hospital without the necessity of midwives having to ride bicycles to our home several times a day every day to check on her nor did anyone have to walk down the street to call for a doctor or ambulance.
Life for the hard working, often very poor, people living in this rough area was difficult by itself but add to it their variety of maladies and childbirth made me marvel at these midwives/nurses who took care of it all. Their individual stories certainly tugged on my heart. The brave, the poor, the heartbreaks, the happiness along with the steadfast, caring, midwives who each gave so much makes this an excellent view into the lives of real people struggling to make do with the life they were offered and the ladies who cared about them.

So captivating from begining to end

I truly enjoyed this audio very much. Every woman story that was told had a lot of heart and tears. After listening I got hooked on the PBS mini series.

The extraordinary , ordinary people!!!

This is an amazing story of real life in post war England. I didn't know about severe housing problem, the severe lack of midwifery training, and so much more. It is a discreet telling of the perverse people who took advantage of the above issues as I am sure happens today . I loved her characterizations of real people ! These people ordinary though they are are extraordinary . The author is perceptive and sincere.

This wasn't that long ago-how times have changed

It's amazing to think this book takes place in such a recent time. The stories are engaging and beautiful. Can't wait for the next one!

then and now

loved it. I enjoyed the commentaries of how things were in the 1940s; and how things are today.

Informative

Would you consider the audio edition of Call the Midwife to be better than the print version?

I watched this series on television so it was easy for me to picture the charcatures. It was informative of the time period and I learned somethings I would have never imagined, as in Doctors being trained by mid-wifes on how to birth babies.

What does Nicola Barber bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She made the people come to life.

Any additional comments?

Not the best book I've listened to all year, but it was very good.