Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in this blog post are solely those of the author.

Spring is in the air, and could there be a more charming start to the season than the Easter festival in the east end of London? Babies decked out in their Easter fare… that is timeless. Do you look forward to the start of every new season of the show as I do? The words spoken by Jenny Lee (Vanessa Redgrave) at the outset of the episode are as applicable today as they were for the time period depicted in this episode. She repeats “At Easter we celebrate the opening of the year; the stone of winter rolls away admitting air and light. We have survived the dark days and are free to be diverted. And as we open our hands and eyes our wings unfold and carry us towards the things in store. New choices, new chances, new horizons, faces wanting to be known, hands wanting to be held, first smiles, first words, first glimpses of potential. Hope enlarges everywhere. Some of us simply begin; while others begin again, or try again, or just try and give their best. One the shadows fall behind us, everything is possible.”

I remember writing in a blog entry last year about how bright the future looked, that we were coming out of the dark of the pandemic and into the light. Little did we all know that COVID variants would pack an additional punch in the fall. We find ourselves sitting with that same glimpse of light now, yet somehow afraid to exhale. This current glimpse of light feels different, though; seems to hold more promise, as we look forward to a future that does not consist of living within a pandemic bubble. Of rejoining our communities, of languishing in the familiarity of camaraderie and conversation – just like “old” times. Hopefully not an overly optimistic view…

The storyline that spoke to me most in this episode was that of the Patel family, recent immigrants from India having their first baby, for whom Midwife Lucille (played by Leonie Elliott) is on call. Most of us midwives who work in group practices, where we share call and laboring women receive care from whichever midwife is on call when they are in labor, believe that the universe has a way of perfectly matching the right midwife in the moment to the patient’s needs. I have cared for so many patients through the years whom I had seen throughout their pregnancy and was so hoping that I would be the midwife on call when they were in labor. But it was not me on call who attended their birth; it was one of my partner midwives with whom the patient and her partner had a wonderfully satisfying birth experience. And conversely, I can say that I have had many births over the years, attending women whom I had not met until they were actually in labor, that turned out to be the most memorable births I have attended. Labor and birth have a way of bonding midwives and women together. That was perfectly illustrated in this episode when Midwife Lucille entered the apartment of the young Mrs. Patel who is laboring, distraught, scared, and crying; her husband not sure what to do to help.

Immediately Lucille (an immigrant herself from Jamaica, making her the first West Indian midwife at Nonnatus House), comes to Mrs. Patel’s side. She reassures her with “you are not alone” and “all is well”; such simple words that carry such weight. She speaks in Mrs. Patel’s language. Lucille is uniquely able to empathize as she knows the isolation and fear Mrs. Patel must feel, alone with only her husband, in a foreign place.

What also struck me about this episode was the juxtaposition of what is going on currently in the world with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The world’s citizens have come to stand beside Ukraine. I saw a photo of empty baby strollers lined up at the train station in Poland, given by Polish families for mothers carrying babies in from Ukraine. Just like Lucille could empathize with Mrs. Patel and find commonality with her not from a perspective of their differences, but of their commonalities, so have we all found common ground with our Ukrainian brothers and sisters. I am thankful that humanity, compassion, and empathy, will never become outdated.