{"id":9816,"date":"2017-04-03T08:00:53","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T13:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.wnpt.org\/mediaupdate\/?p=9816"},"modified":"2017-04-06T15:45:56","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T20:45:56","slug":"ctm-6-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.wnpt.org\/mediaupdate\/2017\/04\/03\/ctm-6-1\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Call the Midwife\u2019 Recap: Season 6, Episode 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Pearl Appleby as Trudy Watts in Call the Midwife. Credit: Courtesy of Neal Street Productions 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Call the Midwife <\/strong><\/a>is back for a sixth season and so are the faculty of the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing with a weekly guest blog. Watch the show Sundays at 7 p.m. through May 21, then read our blog each Monday morning for historical and contemporary context about the previous night\u2019s episode. SPOILER ALERT: Some posts may contain spoilers.<\/p>\n

By Michelle Collins
\nVanderbilt University School of Nursing
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"And we\u2019re off on another season with our favorite heroines in blue! The time is Spring 1962 and there\u2019s a new face in Sister Ursula (Harriet Walters), who has replaced Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter) as charge of Nonnatus House. Sister Ursula has been sent by the order to \u201cstraighten up\u201d the place and her sternness is surpassed only by her lack of warmth and congeniality.<\/p>\n

The first episode of Season 6 centers on a young mother and son who are victims of domestic violence. Violence in families, particularly intimate partner violence, is as old as time. Ancient Greek petroglyphs portray males abusing their female partners. Saint Augustine of Ancient Rome, whose own mother suffered at the hands of her husband, wrote that wives routinely showed the evidence of their husband\u2019s blows.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what we know now: Domestic violence is generational and it is probably far more prevalent than reflected in statistics given that it is underreported much of the time. Sometimes an abused woman may have the relief of a \u201choneymoon\u201d period, wherein her abuser may give her respite from violence during her pregnancy. On the other hand, pregnancy may also be the trigger for an escalation in the violence perpetrated by the partner. Women who withstand kicks or blows to the pregnant abdomen may sustain injury to themselves as well as to the pregnancy.<\/p>\n

In Sunday\u2019s Call the Midwife,<\/strong> the young women went into labor after an episode of violence and gave birth to a baby that was said to be \u201cbathing in her own first bowel movement.\u201d That refers to the passage of meconium \u2013 or baby\u2019s first stool \u2013 within the intrauterine environment, which can occur as a result of intrauterine stress. Too often physical abuse results in death of the baby. The sad reality of this episode is that though it was set in the 1960s and a dramatization, the same situation plays out every day all over the U.S. in 2017.<\/p>\n

Consider the following statistics*:<\/p>\n