PAT JONES talking

For your daughter?
WOULD you let your teenage daughter see this film? The question was raised last week at the release of a technicolour saga, with not an 'X' certificate in sight, called "To Janet, a Son?"
It is the story of the birth of a baby. In fact, by the end of the film we have seen two babies make their slippery way into the world, thus demonstrating two positions of delivery—and the different approach of two mothers.
The film marks the 80th anniversary of the Royal College of Midwives, and Miss Wood, their General Secretary, described it as the best on this subject she had ever seen, an opinion endorsed by the audience, which included experts on motJae,reraft and obstetrics as well as the "lay" critics.
Two mothers
NEITHER Janet nor the other young mother (both patients of the Plaistow Maternity Hospital in the East End of London) are seen in the dramatic agony script writers so often insert into their latest epic.
Janet herself is perfectly relaxed —she obviously knows her exercises and her breathing control down to the last contraction. The other young woman called "Mrs. Denis" does not take things quite Sc, calmly—at one stage she is getting distinctly hot and bothered— but the glorious expression on her face as she sees her baby born shows that it was all worth while, and it is a moment which is apt to reduce susceptible members of the audience to tears.
At no stage did either suffer anything unbearable. There seems to be plenty of time for a happy smile now and then from the mother, and the film itself is not without its moments of humour, as when Janet remembers the panic-stricken haste in which she and her husband rushed to the hospital, only to be faced with 20 hours of waiting as nature took its slow and steady course!
Fears
THIS is a Welfare State story, showing the ante-natal care, and explaining why the various
tests such as blood pressure checks are made and allaying any fears that might be lurking in the mind of the young mother as to whether any of these strange things might be painful or not. It may seem odd to the many people who have had countless chest X-rays that the script troubles to mention that one feels absolutely nothing when this is taken But it is hidden and illogical fears such as this which often make people hesitate to take advantage of modern medicine.
Would you?
THE film will be available free to maternity clinics, and women's organisations (the cost was borne by Farleys Ltd.), and the question of making it available to sixth form schoolgirls (with the consent of parents) was raised by lecturers present who had been impressed by the film. Hence my inquiry: Would you allow, or actively wish, for your teenage daughter to see this film? To finish—why the question mark after "To Janet, a Son?" It turned out to be a daughter.