Call the Midwife season 14 has reunited us with all our Nonnatus House favorites as we arrive in 1070s Poplar for more twists, turns and, of course, expectant mothers and babies!
Call the Midwife season 14 recaps
The Call the Midwife Christmas specials 2024 kickstarted the new series in style with Trixie returning from New York, Reggie going missing and panic for Nonnatus House as the building’s future was thrown into jeopardy. Now we have reached the spring of 1970 and we have a new midwife arriving at Nonnatus House.
Here is everything that happened in Call the Midwife season 14 episode 5…
The fifth episode opens as summer 1970 reaches Poplar and Reggie is home for the holidays and is looking after Cyril’s cat, Nigel, while he is visiting Lucille in Jamaica.
Sister Veronica visits Mr and Mrs Baldwin to find out why their girls, Tracy and Sylvia, haven’t been going to school. They promise to turn over a new leaf in the new term, and Sister Veronica is surprised to see Eva Baldwin is pregnant as she isn’t on the midwife books. But Eva says she doesn’t want a midwife visit and that they are moving to Birmingham in a few days.
The team at Nonnatus House worry that Eva needs their expert care, so Sister Julienne heads to visit the family. Once there, she receives a frosty welcome when Eva refuses to be checked over. She also notices Eva has bruises on her wrists and, worried, gives her the number for Nonattus House should she wish to contact them.
Shelagh visits Mr and Mrs Desmond and Mr Desmond, Owen, is in an air chamber to help him breathe after contracting polio years ago – she changes the dressings on his bed sores and congratulates his wife, Betty, who is taking amazing care of him. She notices that Betty looks a little yellow and so encourages her to make a GP appointment as she could be jaundiced.
At the surgery, Miss Higgins is showing her grandson Harry how her intricate filing system works as he is taking a break from dental school. Doctor Turner invites him to come along on his house calls later, and Harry is really keen. Betty turns up for her appointment and Doctor Turner is clearly worried about the symptoms she is displaying and sends her to St Cuthbert’s for blood tests.
When Betty gets home, she tells Owen that they found a mass in one of her X-rays and that she needs to go back to the hospital to find out more. He asks what it all means but she glosses over it all and hides her worry.
Meanwhile, at Nonnatus House, Sister Monica Joan notices that something isn’t right with Sister Julienne and she corners her in the chapel to ask what is wrong. She explains that she is upset that their work doesn’t seem to be welcomed after a newspaper report was seen couraging expectant mothers to have their babies in hospital and after her run-in with Eva Baldwin, it seems Sister Julienne is feeling more redundant than ever.
Cyril comes home with the sad news that Lucille’s mother died while he was in Jamaica and that is why he extended his visit for a little while. But as he explains to Violet, it seems there is something else he isn’t telling her.
Shelagh goes to see Betty and Owen, and Betty is fretting about having to wait for her results, so Shelagh asks Doctor Turner to call the hospital and find out more. He arrives at the house to break the bad news that Betty has cancer and that it has spread, and there is little they can do apart from making her comfortable. Shelagh and Doctor Turner’s hearts break for the Desmonds as they take in their dire and short-lived future together.
Sister Julienne talks to Sister Veronica about how she feels, sharing her despair that Eva Baldwin won’t ask for the help she so clearly needs. Meanwhile, at the squat that the Baldwins live in, Mr Baldwin gets home drunk from the pub and beats up pregnant Eva in front of their terrified children.
Elsewhere, Violet organises the Poplar Commonwealth Games while the real thing plays out on TV – everyone gets into the spirit of things, making ribbon medals and flag bunting.
At the weekly mother and baby clinic, Eva Baldwin turns up at the last minute with her two girls, and Sister Julienne is pleased to see her but shocked to see she has a black eye. She checks her baby and is concerned when Eva admits that she had a show that morning but there was blood in it, which she hasn’t had before and is worried there is something wrong with the baby. Sister Julienne tells her she is in labour, and Eva panics and tries to go home, but Sister Julienne is worried that she should be going to the maternity home instead. Eva refuses help becasue then her husband will know she went to the clinic when he forbade her to. They get home and her husband is waiting, Sister Julienne tells him to leave but instead of taking their daughters with him, he goes to the pub.
Eva delivers a baby daughter and she seems happy that all has gone well – but soon she is in pain again and after examining her, Sister Julienne breaks the news that it is twins.
Alone in a squat and with no help, Sister Julienne tells the two girls that they have to deliver a note asking for help – but with them off to do their job, Eva and Sister Julienne have no choice but to deliver the second baby, which is coming out feet first.
Soon, Eva delivers another baby girl. Eva’s older daughters do their job brilliantly and arrive back in a taxi after the driver found them wandering the streets. He tells a relieved Sister Julienne that he has called an ambulance. Soon the girls are tucked up in a warm bed together at Nonnatus House and Eva is at the maternity ward with twin number one. Twin number two, who was the smaller of the two babies goes to St Cuthbert’s where she is in an incubator and being tube-fed.
As everyone rallies around Betty and Owen, giving them all the support and help they might need. Doctor Turner tells Harry about something called a cuirass, which is an artificial ventilator that encloses the body – the same idea as the iron lung but portable. Doctor Turner manages to find someone with a cuirass and soon Owen is able to sit up in a wheelchair for the first time in years and hold Betty’s hand as she lies poorly in bed and slowly passes away as he holds her hand.
At the maternity home, Eva’s husband turns up to meet the new babies but he is rude and turns on Eva when Sister Julienne says she should be in the hospital for at least 10 days. Eva finds the courage to tell her husband that they don’t need him and that he should leave, which he does, telling her that he won’t come back. But Eva has made her mind up and tells him that is probably for the best.
Mrs Wallace finds Cyril at the church and he seems troubled. He finally opens up and reveals that while he was away, Lucille asked him for a divorce because she doesn’t want to return to London and he doesn’t want to live in Jamaica. Mrs Wallace asks if there is a compromise the couple can reach, but he says no, there is nothing that can be done and he is worried how people of the church’s congregation will feel about having a divorced pastor.
Miss Higgins is thrilled when Harry announces that his time shadowing Doctor Turner has made him realise that he wants to do medicine at university and not dentistry and that he is going to change his course. They share a warm moment, united in their grief over Harry’s father missing this milestone moment.
At the maternity home, Sister Julienne is helping Eva work out what her options are now that she has four daughters to look after alone. She will go to a hostel and will receive financial help and Eva is grateful for everything Sister Julienne has done, reminding Sister Julienne why she loves her role in the community so much and reviving her faith.
The Poplar Commonwealth Games get underway, and Joyce notices that Rosalind is pining after Cyril and grills her about it. Eventually, Rosalind admits her feelings for Cyril and says that nothing can happen becasue he is married and a pastor. But little does she know he is getting divorced… could there be hope on the horizon?
In the UK Call the Midwife season 14 airs on Sundays on BBC One at 8pm. In the US the series will start in March 2025 on PBS.