Call the Midwife

In postwar London’s East End, a team of nurse midwives and Anglican sisters serve the tight-knit community of Poplar. Facing poverty, cramped housing, and limited medical resources, they deliver babies and provide essential home care with skill and compassion. Each episode follows families at pivotal moments while the midwives navigate demanding work, personal challenges, and changing social attitudes. Warm, human stories blend with the realities of 1950s life.

Set in the late 1950s and beyond, Call the Midwife follows nurse midwives working out of Nonnatus House in Poplar, a hard-pressed neighborhood in London’s East End. Alongside the nursing sisters of an Anglican order, the young midwives travel by bicycle, bus, and on foot to support women through pregnancy, childbirth, and the complicated aftermath of life at home. The series balances intimate case-of-the-week stories with ongoing relationships among the staff and the families they serve, capturing both joy and hardship with empathy. As Britain shifts through the decades, the team confronts evolving medical practices, public health campaigns, and new social expectations, while remaining rooted in community care. Friendships, faith, and resilience sustain them as they respond to crises, celebrate new beginnings, and find purpose in work that changes lives every day.