- [Jenny is describing her visit to a pregnant woman who has 24 children and lives in squalid conditions]
- Jenny Lee: I didn't know where to turn or how to take my leave. They seemed completely unconcerned.
- Cynthia Miller: About the pregnancy or the mess?
- Jenny Lee: The pregnancy *and* the mess. They only had eyes for each other.
- Sister Monica Joan: Exactly. And look where it's got them!
- Jenny Lee: And how can anyone have 24 children and still look so young?
- Trixie Franklin: *Now* you've opened a lovely jar of worms.
- Sister Bernadette: Because she was fourteen when she had her first.
- Sister Julienne: She may even have been younger. Mr Warren brought her back from the Spanish Civil War.
- Sister Bernadette: Most men would be happy with some enemy binoculars!
- Sister Monica Joan: [riding bicycles] There are between 80 and 100 babies born each month in Poplar. Soon as one vacates its pram, another one takes its place. And thus it was and ever shall be, until such time as they invent a magic potion to put a stop to it.
- Mature Jenny: I must have been mad. I could have been an air hostess. I could have been a model. I could have moved to Paris or been a concert pianist. I could have seen the world, been brave, followed my heart. But I didn't. I side-stepped love and set off for the East End of London, because I thought it would be easier. Madness was the only explanation.
- [introduction]
- Mature Jenny: [voiceover] I must have been mad. I could have been an air-hostess. I could have been a model. I could have moved to Paris, or been a concert pianist. I could have seen the world - been brave, followed my heart. But I didn't. I side-stepped love and set off for the East-End of London, because I thought it would be easier. Madness was the only explanation.
- Mature Jenny: [narrating] Midwifery is the very stuff of life. Every child is conceived in love, or lust, and born in pain followed by joy, or by tragedy and anguish. Every birth is attended by a midwife. She is in the thick of it. She sees it all.
- Mature Jenny: I had begun to see what love could do. Love brought life into the world and women to their knees. Love had the power to break hearts and to save. Love was, like midwifery, the very stuff of life and I was learning how to fly with it. Through all the streets, like the river to the sea.
- Pearl Winston: Where are you going to put the needle? Leg or arse?
- Jenny Lee: In your bottom, I'm afraid.
- Pearl Winston: I should have been a stripper! I mean, at least I'd have met a better class of man.