‘Call the Midwife’ season 6, episode 2 preview: Shelagh’s pregnancy news spreads; Patsy’s future
Tonight, “Call the Midwife” is premiering on BBC One, and over the course of this hour, you should get a rather great opportunity to learn a thing or two more about what’s happening for many of the women who are back from South Africa at Nonnatus House. Sister Ursula is now in charge, and the midwives are going to struggle with the new regime. She’s got, after all, a very different way of approaching the business than some of the sisters before her. She’s authoritarian, and wants there to be a distance between the midwives / employees and the people who come under their care.
Unfortunately, what Ursula fails to realize is that one of the reasons why many of these midwives are so excellent at their jobs is because they do have such big hearts and the capacity to feel and care so much as they do. If you try to separate their hearts from their hands and their heads, you could end up with soulless, clinical cases and many more hopeless deaths as a result.
Below, you can see precisely where the story is going to go moving into the second episode, complete with who some of the patients are going to be. Just so you know, there are some spoilers ahead — including further talk of Shelagh’s pregnancy:
“Sister Ursula continues to reign with an iron fist and the midwives at Nonnatus House struggle to toe the line, especially when she insists they must not be emotionally involved with their patients. This unpopular new edict is immediately put to the test when new father George Marsh is badly burnt in an explosion at the docks and is unable to support his new family, and when expectant mother Penny Reed and her anxious husband Derek are brought to the attention of Nonnatus House.
“Penny and Derek both have achondroplasia (colloquially known as dwarfism) and problems with the pregnancy are anticipated, including their baby being stillborn or only living for a short time. As the midwives prepare the Reeds for an infant that may not live, their unconditional devotion to one another and to their unborn child makes a deep impact, especially on Patsy, who is facing one of her toughest decisions yet.
“Elsewhere, barmaid Valerie Dyer’s quick thinking catches Shelagh’s attention when they are first on hand to deal with the casualties at the dock fire. Shelagh is appalled by the general lack of basic health and safety in the docks and strives to make a difference to the men that work there. Dr Turner and Shelagh also share the happy news of Shelagh’s pregnancy with their children.”
Is it a surprise to see that this much of the story has been given away in advance by the network? Absolutely so, but someone out there must want us to know in advance precisely what we are getting ourselves into before the story even arrives. We’ll see how this story is ultimately executed, but we do think that it is coming from an interesting place and it will be interesting to see how the midwives handle a couple with dwarfism who is doing everything that they can to have a healthy family.
What do you want to see next on “Call the Midwife”? Be sure to share some of your thoughts now in the attached comments, and head over here for some further news. We will have a review up following tonight’s premiere airing. (Photo: BBC.)