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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be a quite disgusted by the latest episode of Midwives?

62 replies

EnterWittyNicknameHere · 19/08/2012 21:36

Not because of the vajayjays or anything, but because of the narration, sly camera shots and the constant comparisons between rich and poor.

Basically the episode was based in an area (Wissol? or something like that i think) where there is apparantly an obvious divide in social classes.

On the west side were the fancy mansions and business-people; on the east were the lower class: benefit claimants, single parents, teenage pregnancies basically every sterotypical lower class trait.

The narrator sounded extremelly belittling e.g. when introducing Bruce and his partner (Danielle, i think), he spoke very slowly and in short sentences, as if trying to empthasise each detail. This is their third child. (long pause). They are both unemployed. (long pause). They don't have a working cooker. (Long pause).

And then came all the random camera shots of close-ups of Danielle's unpampered hands (bad nails, cuts etc) which had nothing to do with the narration. Close ups of her bad teeth. Lots of shots of their home. And then it showed Bruce constantly playing rave/dance music.

I just found the episode really horrible and unsettling. There was a constant comparison between the likes of Bruce's family and the 'middle class' on the opposite side of the area. These people had opted for homebirths, hypnobirths, were married, were wealthy, were business folk.

I thought it was all totally stereotypical and generalising. As if to say all people on the East side had social workers, ate bad diets, were on benefits, were teenage mums; all people on the West were wealthy, had great homes, all had jobs, had perfect lives.

Just made me feel a bit shitty tbh. Know idea why though! Maybe because i'm an oversensitive twat?

OP posts:
AtAmber · 19/08/2012 21:40

Wirral. Not wissol.

wheremommagone · 19/08/2012 21:43

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Softlysoftly · 19/08/2012 21:45

I love midwife programmes but I'm avoiding this one as was warned off

IWillOnlyEatBeans · 19/08/2012 21:45

But didn't they point out that the Mums on the East side all just got on with it and didn't make a fuss, whereas the ones on the West (rich) side were all neurotic and spent ages bothering the health visitors about the noises that their babies made? And there was definitely some gentle mockery of the home birth/doula woman who insisted her contractions were called surges...

And to be honest it was shocking that Bruce et al had two (almost 3) children and no working cooker...and one of the poor kids was always strapped into his buggy in the lounge Sad

It made me feel shitty, knowing that that is the life some children are born into...

crikeybill · 19/08/2012 21:45

No it was bad. Their were no showing of extremes that was cheap shot t.v at its finest .

CareerClueless · 19/08/2012 21:46

I agree with wheremommagone. I don't think there was stereotyping. They just showed people that lived their lives in different ways and were from different backgrounds.

AtAmber · 19/08/2012 21:47

I didn't like it either. There are nice places on the east and not so nice places in on the west. Birkenhead is horrible though. The part of Birkenhead that Danielle and Bruce seemed to live in is really bad. I used to work there for the council. I saw Rachel from the show in the supermarket today. The baby looked quite young so it must have been filmed recently.

LeChatRouge · 19/08/2012 21:50

I was also surprised at the editing of this programme and the amount of emphasis on the disparity between the two families.

The particular bit that has kept popping into my head was when the midwife left the home of newborn Charlie (water birth, doula) the midwife kept saying to the parents 'See you in 18 months or so'; but when the midwife left the home of newborn Riley(?), she kept saying 'No more children'. Both families newborns' were their third child.

Muserli · 19/08/2012 21:51

The teen mum who wasn't bonding with her baby in pregnancy seemed shot very sympathetically to me. She was young, but she came across as very responsible and smart and self aware.

The other couple from the East were in a shitty situation, but I thought actually it just showed how fuckd up our society can be. I didn't think they were being sneered at. And she went and had a very quiet calm waterbirth with no bother. Just like the woman from the posh side did.

I found it really interesting, and I thought the high street midwife clinic was an inspired idea.

IWillOnlyEatBeans · 19/08/2012 21:53

They were different midwives though?

cantspel · 19/08/2012 21:54

I would be more upset at yet another child being born into poverty into a home where the parents dont see the importance of having a working cooker.

ReallyTired · 19/08/2012 21:56

I prefer this programme to OBEM. It shows the massive range of women that midwives meet in their work. I thought the woman who had the doula was weird. The doula effectively delivered the baby rather than the qualifed midwives.

I was impressed by how calm and self controlled the women were, rather than the screaming on OBEM.

Shelly32 · 19/08/2012 21:57

cantspel Why no working cooker? Don't we taxpayers sort things like that out for people like this??

Alambil · 19/08/2012 21:58

Worse fact is that there are places with that level of divide - I work in one. It ain't easy...

The high street midwife clinic would be an amazing asset to my work town; we'd get so much more antenatal care for those less inclined to attend appointments

armani · 19/08/2012 21:58

I noticed at the end of the episode the midwives defiantly showed the differences between rich and poor -
The Birkenhead midwife remarked to Danielle and Bruce 'no more babies', whereas the midwife with the home birth kept saying 'see you in 18 months'.

Hmmm annoyed me a bit tbh.

thekidsrule · 19/08/2012 21:59

when was this on,i missed it

Northernlurkerisonholiday · 19/08/2012 22:01

I wouldn't think it was a great idea to have more dcs when you appear to be unable to get your cooker fixed.

imsotired · 19/08/2012 22:02

I'm sorry i didnt pick up on any of those subtexts, I was too busy laughing at the doula woman who had the water birth.... narrator made sure we knew that the OLNY job the husband had was to ensure that the pool water stayed at exactly the right temperature.....

He put a MOP BUCKET into the pristine clean unused and totally 'sterile' pool.

she shouted NO in such a way, that i thought that had the cameras not been there, she'd have had a hissy fit, and then changed the pool water....

Poor bloke! Made me chuckle it did!

IWillOnlyEatBeans · 19/08/2012 22:03

I also laughed at the mop bucket incident... Smile Poor bloke!

cantspel · 19/08/2012 22:03

maybe the midwife made the no more babies comment as she knows the family and knows they cant afford the children they already have.

She probably see's hundred of families like them and knows far better than most of mn do the effects of being born into poverty.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 19/08/2012 22:04

I missed the 'no more babies', but the woman in that couple had health issues, didn't she? She had an iron deficiency. Surely until that's sorted, it is wise for her not to be having more babies?

Whereas the other woman was clearly very fit and healthy.

I thought they harped on a bit much about the divide and it was quite obviously a bit cherry-picked. What stood out for me was the midwife saying that the rich career women all left having babies too late, but then she did make it better by saying that this had happened to her, so it came across as a bit less judgy.

SaggyOldClothCatPuss · 19/08/2012 22:09

The no cooker, large flat screen tv poor family was rather stereotypical! Hmm
I think that both this programme and OBEM both have their good and bad points. This is more warts and all, and you get a lot more of the midwives point of view.

EnterWittyNicknameHere · 19/08/2012 22:09

It was the way they highlighted that the east side had a 15 year less life expectancy than the west; the east side had a lot of child protection issues; the east side had high levels of unemployment etc.

And the reason Danielle had low iron issues, according to the midwife, was because she ate takeaways so often (due to them not having a cooker). So i don't think this would be a permanent issue to justify her saying 'no more babies'.

OP posts:
Viperidae · 19/08/2012 22:11

As someone who works in an area with similar divisions,it annoys me more that these situations still exist and that there are still children born into that kind of life than any amount of sarcasm in one tv show.

I thought the whole doula thing was weird, why would you want someone else delivering your baby when there are qualified professionals sitting around?

Awful though the implied snobbery of the "no more babies" comment was, why is it not thought of as equally awful to knowingly bring a child into that lifestyle? The parents need to take responsibility.

Salmotrutta · 19/08/2012 22:12

There were programmes like this when I was having my DC.

Nothing is new - it's all been done before.

I saw about 5 mins of this and 5 mins of One Born Every Minute.

I really don't know why people consider childbirth to be a spectator sport.

Most of us just got/get on with it.

Like millions of women have done before us ...

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