And did Sir Philip really wear white tie and vest to deliver a baby? Or did he strip down a bit and then put it back on? Because even for Downton that seems unnecessarily formal.
Personally I think this is just the start of the carnage. Episode 36, 15 years hence: Grandma Shirley dies in the US, causing the family to take a hurried trip across the pond in the Hindenburg! A great bookend to the Titanic intro.
Oh the humanity! 
Really sinister is if something happens to Matthew and the the next closest heir is revealed to be 5th cousin Aleister Crowley (played by Rowan Atkinson).
Violet: “Never mind the sacrifices and hellish rituals at all hours of the night, he’s changed the spelling of Crawley!”
Of course he inherits the valet with the cunning plans.
It wasn’t as bad as all that. Lister had published on sterilization back in 1867, and the importance of handwashing and use of sterile instruments was pretty widely accepted by 1920: Surgery - Wikipedia
Heck, in this show we’ve seen Mrs. Patmore get completely successful eye surgery, and Clarkson drained Mrs. Hughes’s cyst like a boss. It’s true that even today, entering the hospital exposes you to more risk of infection, but in a case where the alternative was basically death, the surgery was the way to go.
I also agree that any doctor who says, “I absolutely guarantee [outcome]” should be avoided. But I think the point was that Robert is such an empty-headed snob that he could never accept Clarkson might be right, and it seemed perfectly plausible to him that the posh doctor could be 100% certain. He’s very upper class! Of course he’s infallible!
I think they’ve decided to make Mary into a Daddy’s Girl. Not only is she super offended at the mere idea that Matthew thinks he could do a better job at managing the estate, she doesn’t want anything to change. Nevermind that the old ways blew through two fortunes. We’ve got another fortune, so we can keep getting on. 
That might be behind her announcement that the lesser mansion won’t do. “I’m going to be the Countess of Grantham, and that means I must live at Downton Abbey, just the way Daddy did.”
Also, something that’s been bothering me for a while is that all the upstairs people seem utterly isolated. There was a passing mention to ‘the girls talking with friends’ via telephone during Sybil’s London season, but otherwise NONE of them seems to have a single friend. They don’t pay visits, no one comes to visit them, there’s no mention of correspondence by letters (which apparently was a huge thing with women of that era) and so forth. What the hell DID they do with time?
Well, it seems they used to socialize. Remember the visit from whoever-it-was who brought the Expiring Turk and they all went on a fox hunt? Also they had an outdoor party where Cora laid on a couch and looked pathetic the whole time. So they apparently do socialize, but there’s too much going on to show it now? I can’t get over the fact that they’re not in London more. Seems like if they want to confine the action to Downton, fine, but at least show them getting ready to go and coming back, just to give them impression that they actually use their house there.
Also I wish Mrs. Crawley would say, “I’m Harriet Jones, member of Parliament” just once. [/Doctor Who fan]
Realistically, the family would be spending half the year or more in London, where the bulk of their socializing would take place.
I’m so sick of Daisy. Woman: you can be stupid and downstairs staff or you can be one of the mean kids, but you can’t be both if you don’t want to get your stupid little ass kicked into Season 5 by O’Brien or Thomas (who are mean kids but upstairs and not so stupid). I hope the new kitchen maid chucks Mrs. Hughes’ toaster at her at some point.
This episode sure showed the ugly side of social status standing in for actual job qualifications and expertise. Robert preferred Sir Doctor over the lower-status Dr. Clarkson, when it was Dr. Clarkson who was clearly working as a doctor should, observing potentially worrisome symptoms in the patient and using them to build a diagnosis, as opposed to Sir Doctor, who seemed to feel that his job was to convince everyone that everything would be fine, to the point of endangering the patient writing off every aspect of another doctor’s concerns.
Robert, despite holding an important hereditary title, apparently has no business acumen, and has been squandering large amounts of money by ignoring the sound business advice of his advisers. Matthew understands the need to correct the financial course of the estate, but it’s going to be an uphill or losing battle to convince him.
Finally, in the lower echelons of society, Ethel is unable to find employment, because, well, once a prostitute, always a prostitute, with no way to get her foot in the door for redemption (if not for the generosity of Mrs. Crawley).
I loved Mrs. Crawley’s graciousness with the burned kidney souffle (speaking of… ewww) and apparently botched tea. And I loved her scene with her cook (“Right then, one month’s wages, toodles”).
Speaking of classism, it’s funny that (with the exception of Mrs. Hughes, who is more forgiving) the servants are more prudish about Ethel than Mrs. C..
IANAD, but my understanding of the proper treatment for pre-eclampsia is a c-section. Today they give magnesium sulfate to help. C-sections were not that uncommon back then and while, probably somewhat risky, still better than going into full eclampsia.
The current Queen Elizabeth was born by c-section in 1926 which is only a few years after the time frame in question. I am wondering if part of the hesitation was because c-sections could make it much riskier to have more children as the incision can rupture.
But even Mrs. Hughes had no answer to Carson’s question about having Edith up to the big house.
That was largely about provenance, thought. It’s understood that if anybody is to run a brothel in the kitchen at Downton it must go through Mrs. Padmore.
The middle class is notoriously more prudish than those above and below. That’s one of the reasons that Robert’s priggishness and prissiness is so grating.
Mrs. Hughes: “Yes she has! [Done the right thing by giving away her son] Until we live in a very different world . . .”
Mrs Crawley: (thinking) “Challenge accepted!”
Robert is beginning to remind me of an English and non-comedic version of Mr. Carlson from WKRP: a genuinely well intentioned silver spoon who wants to be involved but is a natural born bungler.
Has the show stated whether Tom Branson is devout in his Catholicism? It seems that his socialism is more important than his religion, but
1- That’s not established
2- Socialism would also seem at odds with marrying an heiress and living on her vast ancestral estate
I was wondering (not asking for spoilers) if the Crawley’s Anglicanism will be an issue.