Fair warning for anyone who has not watched the episode yet…have tissue readily available! There are high highs and low lows, and the tears will be flowing throughout! Trixie (Helen George) and Matthew’s (Olly Rix) wedding is everything we had all hoped it would be and more. My favorite part was Sister Monica Joan’s (Judy Parfitt) heartfelt reading (you all know she is my favorite character!) Trixie looked every bit as beautiful and stylish as I knew she would and being a “virtual guest” at the wedding was a highlight of the season.

Now let’s get to one of the low lows of the episode. The young couple involved in the car accident en route to the hospital; I was not expecting what happened. What we saw was a “perimortem” (literally interpreted means “around death”) or as some call it, a post-mortem cesarean section performed by Dr. Turner (Stephen McGann) in the middle of the road. While some viewers may think that this event was added into the script simply to add to the drama of the series, and couldn’t possibly ever happen, perimortem cesarean sections are done, when necessary, which thankfully is only rarely. Most common reasons necessitating perimortem cesarean sections are trauma (as in the case of the woman in the episode), eclampsia (seizures because of a pregnancy related hypertensive disorder), amniotic fluid embolism (a life-threatening complication that occurs usually during, or shortly after, birth) and maternal heart disease.

And what about Dr. Turner performing the cesarean section at the crash site? Even if perimortem cesareans are performed, they would certainly never be performed outside of the hospital, would they? Surprisingly, the greatest chance of saving the baby in a postmortem situation results from performing the procedure within approximately 4 minutes of maternal circulatory collapse. As you can imagine, that leaves no time to transport the pregnant patient in one of these situations (who is not already in a hospital) to a hospital to perform the procedure. Even when in the hospital, it’s nearly impossible to get a baby out that quickly. I starkly remember sitting in the change of shift report on labor and delivery during the pandemic, hearing reports on critically ill pregnant patients in the intensive care unit who had postmortem c-section trays at their bedside if needed. Terrifying…

I don’t want to end this entry without addressing the words of Phyllis Crane (Linda Bassett) in her conversation with Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter). She described her fear of being “left behind, having no relevance, no work to do” as she pondered on midwives coming and going at Nonnatus House while she remains, and grows older. Can we not all identify with that sentiment? So much of our identity is our work life, particularly when our work is a calling, as it is with midwifery and so many other caring professions. One doesn’t “stop” being a counselor, a minister, a nurse, a midwife when they hit retirement age – hopefully Phyllis will be practicing midwifery for a long time (and many seasons) to come…at least that is my hope!

And so just that quickly another season is “done and dusted” as the Brits say (which if you, like me had to google what that expression means) indicates the successful completion of something. What a way to go out on break – or on honeymoon as it were. Can’t wait until Season 13 begins! I will miss our friends from the East End, but I know they will be back soon. Until then, join me in a late celebration of International Day of the Midwife which occurred on May 5th, and thank you to all my midwifery colleagues around the globe for always putting mommas and babies first!