Secrets and lies come out as the midwives get to the bottom of an STI outbreak in Call the Midwife season 14, episode 2. Meanwhile, Trixie has a patient in a mental health crisis.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for Call the Midwife season 14, episode 2.
The episode opens with a new patient coming to the clinic, only for the midwives and doctors learn that she has come from a psychiatric hospital. Meanwhile, an expectant mother finds out that she has gonorrhoea, leading to questions about how she got it.
Trixie helps a pregnant woman in a mental health crisis in Call the Midwife season 14, episode 2
When a new patient comes to the clinic, it’s clear she isn’t too happy about having to give the name of her doctor. That’s because the doctor sent her to a psychiatric hospital, where she was being treated for manic depression. She’s on lithium, which certainly helps her condition, and it’s soon clear to Trixie when she stops taking her medication.
To be honest, I can’t blame her for not wanting to take the medication. At a visit, a doctor tells her that she needs to bottle feed. There is no research into lithium and how it gets into the breastmilk, and the doctor doesn’t want to risk the baby getting sick. Well, now Arlene is worried about what it means taking the lithium at the moment. Is she causing harm to her baby?
As she decides to stop taking her meds, she starts to suffer from a manic episode. Trixie is quick to spot that something is wrong, but it’s too late to get Arlene to take her meds again. In fact, the baby is coming, and Arlene is worried that she’s going to be locked up in the psychiatric hospital again.
Sadly, because she stopped taking her meds, the doctors decide that there is no choice but to send Arlene back to the psychiatric hospital. It’s definitely not what she wanted, especially with her daughter going into the foster care system. She does get to hold her daughter for one last time, and she gets a lock of her daughter’s hair.
Nowadays, we would see people with mental health issues treated for them and supported to remain with their children for the most part. It’s heartbreaking to see this is what happened.
Rosalind tries to help a homeless man
While the Isle of Dogs sets up for its Flower Show, a fight breaks out in one of the establishments. Rosalind splits it up, only for Cyril to deliver some bad news. The superintendent won’t let him stay because of the fight that he started.
Rosalind tries to get to the bottom of it, because the guy started a fight with someone who was supposedly a friend. Well, they’re both homeless, and they’re only looking out for himself. Rosalind wants to do something to help him, and when she finds out that he was a window dresser at Harrods, she has an idea how to help the man. She wants him to help with the flower show.
While he manages to get the flowers, he leaves her a note to say goodbye. Cyril points out that Rosalind showed him kindness, and that’s what counts. It looks like we are losing Cyril, though, as he decides it’s time to return to Jamaica to see his wife.
While all this is going on, Violet gets some news. The Mayor of the Isle of Dogs isn’t returning due to having cancer, and the council wants Violet to stay on. Fred isn’t too happy about it, but he does admit that she’s done a good thing so far. However, Violet admits that she’s tired; they’re both tired, and she can’t do it.
Fred decides that Violet can’t stop being the mayor. She’s brought some big changes so far, and the people need her. Fred is such a modern man, and it’s beautiful to see.
Call the Midwife brings an STI outbreak to light
The start of the STI outbreak comes to light when an expectant mother comes in with thrush and gonorrhoea. She asks her husband about it, but he claims that he has been faithful to his wife. Well, it’s not surprising to hear that he wasn’t.
When a teenager comes in also with gonorrhoea, he finally admits that he went to a brothel with his brother for his brother’s stag do. This is where he picked it up, and so Millicent and others head out on a mission to treat the woman who passed on the infection. It wasn’t just one, though. Many of them have the same infection, and while they can’t share who their clients are, many give a description of a foreman with a scar that threatens them.
Because of the description of the scar, Millicent is able to track down who the foreman is. Sure enough, the husband from earlier is one of the workers, and while he only went to the brothel once, he managed to pick up the disease and pass it onto his wife. He has to tell her the truth, sharing that when his parents sent him to England to avoid marrying her (one is Greek and the other Turkish), he thought their relationship was over.
Well, the wife isn’t accepting the apology or the reasoning. After giving birth, she makes it clear that she will return only so that her son knows his father. She will not return as his wife.
Throughout all of this, Millicent shows that she is a necessary part of Nonnatus House. It doesn’t matter that she’s not a midwife or a nun. She has proven that her ability to organize and research has helped the clinic faster than anyone else could have.
Call the Midwife airs on Sundays at 8/7c on PBS.
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