Call The Midwife – Season 10, Episode 3

By: Ellie Yates

Louise (Jenny Walser) storms into the clinic demanding to see Dr Turner (Stephen McGann). Miss Higgins (Georgie Glen) asks her for her co-op card. Mrs Higgins says she should have one if she is pregnant, but Louise tells her that’s why she needs to see Dr Turner – she needs him to confirm her pregnancy. It turns out that Louise isn’t pregnant after all, despite her insisting that she has all the symptoms. Dr Turner agrees to examine her to put her mind at rest, but she’s still not pregnant.

However, after being discharged Louise still appears to be having problems, including blood in her urine. She had tests at St Cuthbert’s but nothing was discovered. Dr Turner and Sister Hilda (Fenella Woolgar) arrange for some more tests. Later, Louise calls the clinic desperate to speak to Dr Turner again. When she isn’t able to see him she turns up banging on the door of Nonnatus. Sister Hilda takes her back home and makes sure she eats. As she is about to leave, Louise suddenly has a pain in her leg. When Sister Hilda tells Dr Turner that Louise seemed very low and has no family around, they wonder if she’s exaggerating her symptoms. However, they are still concerned by the blood in her urine.

Sister Hilda pays Louise yet another visit and she has all the symptoms under the sun. There is also blood in the sick bowl next to her bed. When Sister Hilda goes rinse it, she notices a razor blade with blood on it and that Louise has a plaster on her finger. Sister Hilda explains that when patients have blood in their vomit it’s more like brown specks, yet the blood in Louise’s bowl looked more like blood from a cut. Louise insists she’s not well. Dr Turner does some ringing around and finds that Louise has been using the same tactics with other surgeries. He concludes that Louise is wanting the attention from her caregivers, i.e. the doctors, and he says they will get her the help that she needs. Louise is still convinced that she is physically ill and is expecting an operation, but Dr Turner does his best to explain tentatively that a mental illness is no less serious than a physical one. Despite this, Louise still insists that she needs medical help.

Louise returns home and overdoses on pills and gin. Luckily, Sister Hilda finds her in time and Louise says she knew she would come. Dr Turner says that they will have to make the difficult decision to have Louise “certified” as she isn’t accepting any help. He understands that mental illness is just that – an illness – but knows the place where Louise is going won’t. As Sister Hilda spends the night watching over Louise, it turns out that she had appendicitis when she was little, but her mother didn’t believe her and punished her in the yard. Louise said it was the best feeling in the world when they realized she had appendicitis as the nurses were so kind and caring towards her. This prompts Sister Hilda to consider joining the Samaritans.

Meanwhile, Lucille (Leonie Elliot) is seeing Mrs Williams (Sandra Marvin) who is pregnant with her third child and is concerned about her weight gain and says that they need to limit it. Shelagh (Laura Main) tells Mrs Williams that her blood pressure is up and she’s found traces of glucose in her urine. After learning that Mrs Williams’ first two children were 9lbs and 10 ½lbs respectively, Shelagh says that the third baby will also be big and they’ll need to plan for a hospital delivery. However, Mrs Williams is adamant she’s giving birth at home. Considering the traces of glucose Shelagh found and Mrs Williams’ babies being born large, Lucille suspects that Mrs Williams is developing diabetes and consults with Shelagh.

After reminiscing with Lucille about visiting the beaches back home, Cyril (Zephryn Taitte) pays a visit to the shop where Violet (Annabelle Apsion) is still scolding Fred (Cliff Parisi) for allowing IOUs. Cyril breaks the tension by asking if they have a picnic basket as he wants to surprise Lucille with a trip to the seaside. However, Sister Frances (Ella Bruccoleri) has finally given in to her painful tooth and gone to the dentist, so Lucille has had to take over her rounds. She’s called to Mrs Williams’ house, who has purposely left it too late to have a hospital birth.

Mrs Williams is having trouble giving birth and realizes that something isn’t right. Lucille calls for Dr Turner, but he is also unable to deliver the baby. He tells Lucille to call for an ambulance as Mrs Williams needs a caesarean. Mrs Williams is distraught, but this is clearly the best for her and her baby. When the baby is delivered it weighs in at 13lbs 8oz! Poor Mrs Williams! Mrs Williams’ baby is kept in an incubator for a few days and Mrs Williams feels that she is to blame for the complications.

When Mrs Williams takes her baby home she is clearly in some pain and is burning up. She shows Lucille her scar and it is clearly infected. Dr Turner prescribes her with some antibiotics and tells her that it’s possible that she’s developed latent diabetes during her pregnancy. This caused the baby to grow larger, hence the difficult birth. After delivery the condition disappears so both her and her son are perfectly healthy. Mrs Williams struggles with not being able to hold, feed or bathe baby Paul, but Lucille tells her it will get easier.

Cyril tries again to meet with Lucille, but she is still covering for Frances. Instead, they have their picnic in Cyril’s flat that night. Lucille is touched by the gesture, but says it’s not the sand she misses. It’s her family and not being able to introduce Cyril to them. They both speak about how it would be if they met in their home country, but as Cyril points out they probably would never have met if they hadn’t left home. Following this Cyril writes a letter to Lucille’s parents to introduce himself and let them know of his intentions. Lucille also writes one to Cyril’s family and they head to the post box together to post them.

At Nonnatus House Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter) tells the Sisters that they will be having a male visitor (Tom Morley) who will be taking the spare room at the top of the house. Although, he will have to sleep on a camp bed as mice have been at the mattress. Seeing as he is from the church, he would like to speak with Sister Monica Joan (Judy Parfitt), who has still not got back in touch with her faith, to see if he can get her to visit the chapel. However, him telling Sister MJ that he can bring the sacrament to her was a bad idea as she is less than impressed that he is suggesting she is sick or about to take her “final journey to the beyond.” She’s not quite ready for the Last Rites yet! Later, Sister Monica Joan confides in Sister Julienne that where she once heard God’s voice, there is now nothing it all. Sister Julienne says she will see the light again.

Speaking of seeing the light, Shelagh has been trying to think of ideas to make money and save Nonnatus. When she decides to stand in as a tutor at St Cuthbert’s, she comes up with the idea that trainee midwives could complete the second half of their training at Nonnatus and they’ve already secured funding for this from the NHS. They could also charge the trainee midwives to stay at Nonnatus whilst they complete their training.