Modern Day Midwives blogger Katie Moriarty eagerly anticipates Season 5 and discusses how the midwifery lessons of 1961 Poplar are still relevant today in Detroit, Mich.

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

Welcome back Call the Midwife! Season 5 is this Sunday, April 3. Another Season is about to begin and we get to share Sunday nights with Trixie, Patsy, Barbara, Phyllis, Shelagh, Dr. Patrick Turner, Fred and the nuns—Sisters Evangelina, Julienne, Monica Joan, Mary Cynthia and Winifred! Go to the homepage of PBS to take a quiz and see which character you would be?! I did it!

I am a professor on faculty at Frontier Nursing University (FNU). We are the No. 1 Nurse Midwifery Program in the United States. We have about 750 nurse-midwifery students that are excited and working hard with their course work and clinical rotations. They are eager to finish school so that they can help women and families around the country—just like the amazing Nonnatus House nurses-midwives and nuns. FNU has been hosting Call the Midwife events around the country and getting geared up for another astonishing season. And yes—we often use the show and the scenarios as a venue to teach our students.

I am also a practicing Certified Nurse-Midwife and work in a group practice at Hutzel Women’s Hospital. We are located in Detroit, Mich. We have the worst infant mortality in the nation and one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the USA—so I will also be drawing on some of my clinical experiences from my everyday work and relating them back to the episodes.

In Season 5, we are entering 1961 and Poplar is feeling the winds of change with housing, sanitation and healthcare. Here we are in 2016 and in Michigan we have been facing the recent Flint water crisis, as summer approaches we have the zika virus looming, and in Detroit we have continued poverty, crime and urban blight. I am looking forward to sharing Season 5 with you as a Modern Day Midwife!

Katie Moriarty, PhD, CNM, CAFCI, FACNM, RN is a professor on faculty at Frontier Nursing University and a Certified Nurse-Midwife with WSUPG CNM Service at Hutzel Women’s Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. Katie serves on the Board of Directors for the American College of Nurse-Midwives as the Region IV Representative. Previously she was the Associate Director of the Nurse-Midwifery Education Program at the University of Michigan.
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