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

I am sure I am not alone in saying THANK GOODNESS Dr. Turner (Stephen McGann) and Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter) were ok after the train wreck! I was holding my breath until we could feel relieved knowing that they were both going to recover. All I could think of was the omen of those black crows that Sister Monica Joan (Judy Parfitt) warned us about. And like you, I knew everything at Nonnatus House would be set right when Phyllis Crane (Linda Bassett) appeared back on the scene after the disaster.

Are you like me in that you love coming away from these episodes learning something new? As long as I have worked in obstetrics, I had never heard of burying a baby along with someone else recently deceased because otherwise the baby cannot be buried in consecrated ground. According to the Oxford reference, “until recent times, the Church of England and Roman Catholic Church did not allow miscarried or stillborn babies to be buried in consecrated ground, as they had not been baptized; it was thought (explicitly by Catholics, more vaguely by Anglicans) that they went neither to Heaven nor Hell, but to Limbo, where they could never know God.” Unbaptized babies - Oxford Reference

I thought this was a fascinating piece of history worked into the episode, and somehow seemed like divine providence, that the older woman who died in the train accident, who loved and was surrounded by children and grandchildren (according to her daughter) was able to be buried with the little one nestled in her arms.

And sweet Sister Frances (Ella Bruccoleri), thank goodness for her insistence, standing up to the hospital midwife who treated the teen mother less than compassionately. Many times, as midwives we play the advocate role for our clients – representing their interests to our collaborating physicians who sometimes have little patience for women who want to be given a fair amount of time to labor before being declared “failure to progress” and subjected to a cesarean section; to nurses who “knowingly” declare after being handed a patient’s birth plan that it is inevitable that the woman will end up with a surgical birth because “ALL” women who have birth plans end up with cesarean sections; the list is never ending.

And just like that, friends, we find ourselves at the end of another season, and what a fitting way to end the season than to hear Sister Monica Joan (Judy Parfitt) declare “We are the sisters of Raymond Nonnatus, present at life’s commencement and its end.” Indeed, they are.

Thank you for watching another season with me and for being along for the ride as we ponder each episode, penned in these blogs. Until next season then! In the meantime, I will try not to perseverate on the large black crows that roost in the tree outside of my office window…