UMSN Midwifery Faculty Host Call the Midwife Viewing Party for Students
A lively discussion centered on midwifery’s history and its role in the future as University of Michigan School of Nursing (UMSN) faculty and students watched the season finale of the hit PBS show.
Call the Midwife provides a captivating look at the midwifery and its social role in London during the 1950s. The audience follows a young nurse and her peers through their first midwifery experiences, as they learn from the wisdom of midwives who have spent decades delivering babies, and providing care to mothers. UMSN sponsored the 6-week series on Detroit Public Television.
UMSN Assistant Professor Lisa Kane Low, Ph.D., CNM, FACNM, (far right in photo) visited the same East-end neighborhood where the series is based during her study abroad as a nursing student. Though Dr. Kane Low was there decades after the era of the show, she believes it’s a generally accurate depiction. “My mother-in-law is Scottish, and from her stories, my own experiences, and what I know in history, I think they did a very good job of getting it right,” said Dr. Kane Low. “The faculty enjoyed the show, and the students seemed to have fun watching it, too.”
“It has been interesting to see what has changed in the profession and what has stayed the same,” said Ashleigh Shiffler (3rd from right in photo), a UMSN Second Career Program student who plans to pursue midwifery. “I still encounter quite a few people who, when I tell them that I want to study midwifery, are unaware that midwives still practice or that they can practice in hospitals. I'm glad the show has had such a great reception here in the U.S. and has brought the profession of midwifery into the spotlight.”
The attention on midwifery comes as UMSN is celebrating a significant achievement. This academic year marks the 20th anniversary of the first class of graduates from the UMSN midwifery program. The program, which consistently ranks as one of the best in the country, graduates nurse-midwives who are educated and clinically-trained to provide exceptional primary health care management to women and newborns.
Shiffler said while she appreciates the entertaining look at midwifery in the past, she’s glad certain things have changed. “I'm thankful that midwives are still practicing with the same passion and heart that they always have, but I'm also thankful that they've replaced glass instruments with plastic.”
