The story of BCS70 reaches millions in BBC’s Call the Midwife

We were thrilled to see BCS70 featured in an episode of the BBC series Call the Midwife earlier this year. 

Over 7 million viewers witnessed the moment it all began in April 1970, as regular character Dr Turner and the midwives prepared for the BCS70 birth survey in their East London hospital. 

Dr Turner excitedly tells the midwives, “This is going to be teaching us things for 80 years.” And he’s quite right!  

BCS70 has gone on to provide invaluable evidence on so many topics, including:  

• the links between smoking in pregnancy and children’s respiratory problems 

• the importance of nursery schools and playgroups for children’s cognitive development 

• the benefits of reading for pleasure in childhood for maths skills 

• the impact of poor literacy and numeracy on adults’ employment 

• the enduring gender pay gap, and  

• midlife mental ill health. 

You can watch the clip from Call the Midwife here: https://bit.ly/41L6g4W

Or watch the whole episode on BBC iPlayer – Series 14 Episode 1: https://bit.ly/4iI5zzr