The Midwife - (Episode 2 of 4) - "The Records"

[ominous music] I started keeping a notebook.

Not on my phone.

Mrs. Holloway had a way of appearing when I was looking at my screen, peering over my shoulder with that warm smile, asking what I was reading.

A physical notebook felt safer, something I could hide.

I wrote down everything, the inconsistencies in the birth records, the children who didn't match their parents, the mothers who left town and never came back, the adoptions that had no paperwork, and the questions.

So many questions.

Why did Mrs. Holloway ask so much about my career? Why did she seem so interested in whether I was ready to be a mother? Why did the other women in town look at me with something that might have been pity? Ben thought I was obsessing.

Maybe I was, but the alternative was to trust a woman who made my skin crawl, and I couldn't do that, not with my daughter's life.

So I kept digging.

[ominous music] The library was my first real breakthrough.

Coldbrook's library was small, a single room in a converted house staffed by a woman named Martha who'd known Ben since he was in diapers.

She was delighted to help the pregnant wife of little Benny Torres with her research project.

"Local history," I told her.

"I'm interested in the town's traditions, the way the community has stayed so close-knit over the years." "Oh, that's Mrs.

Holloway's doing," Martha said immediately.

"She's the heart of this town, has been for 40 years.

Before her, it was her mother, and before that, her grandmother.

The Holloway women have been delivering Coldbrook's babies since the town was founded." "That's a long tradition." "It's more than tradition.

It's a calling." Martha's eyes went soft.

"Mrs.

Holloway delivered my two boys.

Best experience of my life.

She has a gift, knows exactly what each mother needs, exactly how to bring each baby into the world.

Some say she can tell things just by looking, whether the pregnancy will be easy or hard, whether the baby will thrive, whether the mother will be..." "Good?" Martha's expression flickered, just for a moment.

"She cares about the children.