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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

one born could be banned... is this unreasonable

120 replies

ghostspirit · 28/10/2015 10:08

www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/call-one-born-every-minute-6717624#ICID=sharebar_facebook

i think it is. people can turn over is they dont like it. and i think it gives woman an insight of how things might be when they are in labour.

OP posts:
specialsubject · 28/10/2015 12:25

I never get why childbirth is a competitive body function. The idea is to get a healthy baby and mother at the end. If this needs medical intervention, no-one has 'failed' - the alternative is one or both dead or injured. Be grateful this intervention exists. The baby will neither care nor remember.

but it surely cannot be news to anyone that the process is, er, uncomfortable at the very least?

elliejjtiny · 28/10/2015 12:36

Some of these posts have made me glad I didn't do NCT classes, the NHS ones were far more realistic. I don't watch OBEM anymore because of my 2 traumatic births but I don't think it should be banned. Women have a choice to watch it or not.

I've had 3 straightforward quick VB's and then 2 CS's. The failure thing is rubbish and should never be said or implied to women. A CS is hard enough to recover from without someone telling you that you could have had unicorns and rainbows if you'd done things "properly".

SnozzberryPie · 28/10/2015 12:40

I've watched a few episodes and the most unrealistic thing compared to my experience was how the women all got their own rooms and always seemed to have a friendly midwife present - nothing like my experience of labouring mostly alone on a ward! Are some hospitals really like that, or is it because they know it will be on TV?

From the few episodes I've seen they seemed to cover a range of births from nice calm water births to screaming for an epidural. I think that is quite helpful in terms of what to expect.

I am quite happy to watch other women give birth but I cannot for the life of me imagine being happy to be filmed doing it!

minifingerz · 28/10/2015 12:42

"If this needs medical intervention, no-one has 'failed'"

The mum hasn't failed, but if one hospital has more than double the intervention rates of another hospital nearby serving a similar demographic with no improvements in outcomes for either mum or baby, then it's right that someone should question this.

There are also massive differences in induction rates - from 31% of all labours to 19%, massive differences in rates of forceps - 10% to 3%, ventouse, 14% to under 5%.

Some hospitals are maintaining good outcomes with much lower rates of interventions than others.

minifingerz · 28/10/2015 12:50

And OBEM shows a fuck-load of awful, suboptimal and non-NICE mandated midwifery practice, with absolutely no acknowledgement or comment.

People have increasingly come to see this as 'normal', and expect that this is how they should be looked after, and it's not.

It won't be banned though, it generates too much cash for channel 4.

NumbBlaseCold · 28/10/2015 13:10

There are many shows I don't want to see, some which distress and upset me.

I just avoid watching them.

This woman should do the same.

The cynic in me wonders if this is not a good promotion for her as a coach, getting her name out there.

I hope she is just believing most people think like her and not considering the many who don't and the many who do but do not watch.

NumbBlaseCold · 28/10/2015 13:11

I do not like OBEM, it upsets me for personal reasons.

I just don't watch it.

Same as things with surgery scenes in them.

BackInTheRealWorld · 28/10/2015 13:14

I love obem....especially when the dads cry!

Utterlyclueless · 28/10/2015 13:14

I was scared to watch it when I was pregnant so I chose not to watch it.

Are people incapable of changing channel?

It's completely unreasonable! It probably puts some women at ease too

Bloomsberry · 28/10/2015 13:50

The few episodes I've seen seemed to show some seriously below-par midwifery, and I can't help wondering about the effect of the filming on the labouring women, the midwives and the way they relate to the woman, and to their job in general. Apart from anything else, wouldn't the distracting presence of a camera crew lengthen labour?

Also, why on earth would you agree to be filmed at a particularly vulnerable time??? Is the lure of 'being on TV' that much of a draw??? And how do the units decide to participate? Who decides? Do individual HCPs get a say?

It's a weird, weird programme, and I honestly can't see the appeal of watching strangers in pain. Some French friends were visiting and turned on the TV and I came into the room to see three shocked faces confronting a midwife hauling a baby out of a distended pixelated vagina, completely taken aback...

Bloomsberry · 28/10/2015 13:55

Also, for God's sake, did no one point out to the producers that 'There's one born every minute' means 'There's a sucker born every minute', probably originally said about PT Barnum's hoodwinking techniques...? It's a bit illiterate as a way of naming a programme about actual babies.

CheeseCakeOfDreams · 28/10/2015 14:13

I watched a programme about how OBEM is made. There isn't a camera crew in the hospital with the birthing woman. Cameras are fixed to the wall and the TV crew get the shots they want by manoeuvring the cameras from a van in the carpark outside the hospital. A bit like the cameras you see fixed to the wall in the Big Brother house I suppose (not that I've watched BB for years).

Topseyt · 28/10/2015 14:35

The Mirror is a rag on a par with the DM.

It's a non-story. OBEM is unlikely to be banned, surely.

The clue about what the programme content may be is in the title and in the description, so anyone with an ounce of intelligence knows that it is about childbirth and can decide for themselves whether or not to watch it.

It may, as someone upthread suggested, find itself somewhat at odds with the overly romanticised rose-tinted spectacles version of childbirth that the ridiculous NCT likes to tout as the gold standard, but IMHO that is all the more reason NOT to ban it. It is realistic and does show a good spread of different birthing experiences. Some are textbook perfect and others with varying levels of complications.

I don't watch it often, but there is nothing wrong with it.

scatterthenuns · 28/10/2015 14:36

OBEM isn't unique though.

There are tonnes of programmes that show birth. I spent a large portion of my teenage years watching them with my mum.

There were tonnes on Discovery Health et al in the late 1990s to early 00s. Nothing's going to get banned, if these didn't.

'There's one born every minute' means 'There's a sucker born every minute'

Yeah, that's the point.

imwithspud · 28/10/2015 14:47

How silly. Of course it's not going to be banned. If someone doesn't like watching it they can just switch it off, not rocket science.

minifingerz · 28/10/2015 14:55

"The clue about what the programme content may be is in the title and in the description, so anyone with an ounce of intelligence knows that it is about childbirth and can decide for themselves whether or not to watch it."

Yes - because it doesn't matter if this programme is culturally damaging or traumatising to young women who may know nothing else about childbirth than what they see on this programme, because individuals can always just turn over!

On that basis we should have regular re-runs of Benny Hill and racist 1970's stand ups on TV. After all, people did used to like them, and if you find them offensive or upsetting, just turn the channel!

Hmm
minifingerz · 28/10/2015 15:02

"with the overly romanticised rose-tinted spectacles version of childbirth that the ridiculous NCT likes to tout as the gold standard"

'Gold standard' birth? Do you want to link to something on the NCT website that supports the notion that there is only one 'right' way to give birth?

Because if this is a fundamental view of the organisation there would be evidence of it on their website surely?

scatterthenuns · 28/10/2015 15:55

this programme is culturally damaging or traumatising to young women

Is it though? Is it really wise to go into birth having not seen the process?
I understand the fear, and therefore not wanting to watch it, but I really do think you need to be prepared and OBEM is a great and accessible way to observe it.

minifingerz · 28/10/2015 16:18

I suppose that if you are going to give birth in the sort of hospital settings where OBEM is filmed it might make sense to know what happens to a lot of women who labour there.

If you want to understand what physiological birth can look and sound like when women aren't being subject to a large number of unhelpful and disruptive practices it might be worth watching something like 'homebirth diaries' instead. This programme does show that some labours become complicated and need medical input, but it also shows what labour is like for women who are not having loads of obstructions to normal labour put in their way - like being made to push while lying on their backs.

There's a reason why disproportionately large numbers of healthy low risk mums have problematic labours on labour wards (compared to similar low risk women in birth centres and at homebirths) and OBEM shows you why this is (without explicitly telling you).

So yes - you do learn something about labour, but maybe they need to spell it out and give a bit more commentary. Like the sarcastic voice over in Come Dine With Me

"this mum has been pushing whole flat on her back for an hour now. The midwife could get her onto her knees and encourage her to push in an upright position for a bit, as this might help. However, she decides not to for reasons that nobody can bloody work out. But oh look, here comes the doctor with the ventouse! I think it's about to get interesting around here!'

BalthazarImpresario · 28/10/2015 16:25

I think banning is a bit far but like a previous poster I don't get all the fuss. I gave birth, I don't feel the need to watch other people and before I first have birth I didn't feel the need to watch others do it. It's nothing special it happens every second of the day and always has.

kinkytoes · 28/10/2015 16:40

I also find the births featured to be relatively straightforward, and after my experience it pees me off to be honest. But then if you have a traumatic birth experience, chances are you're not going to agree to someone broadcasting it. Or maybe the hospitals get power of veto if things do go wrong?

Topseyt · 28/10/2015 16:51

Culturally damaging and traumatising!!!???

Utter bollocks. It's childbirth. You can't sanitise it. That is how it is.

Two of my three births were complicated and traumatic, one resulting in birth injuries to me and the other in an EMCS.

The NCT seems to view just about all intervention as failure and not being a proper mother (yes, I have known people who were told that at classes).

eternalopt · 28/10/2015 18:16

I think OBEM covers all types of birth. They always seem to have one episode in each series where they have c-section, one where there are long births, one where they have water births etc... Anyone who didn't realise before watching it that it hurts to push a person out your hoo ha is frankly too stupid to have children and it's no bad thing they're scared off!!

Littleoakhorn · 28/10/2015 18:19

What? I don't think they show only the worst cases at all. If anything they seem to edit to make the labours appear to be a lot quicker, but that's inevitable really given the format. What are they supposed to do anyway? Light some smelly candles and give everyone a crash course in yoga?

I'm not very impressed with the posters mocking women for screaming at 2cm. Every labour is different, some are more painful than others, some are longer than others, some don't progress... why the snarky comments?

PiperIsTerrysChoclateOrange · 28/10/2015 18:43

I feel sorry for the babies born on that program.

Even though the mother has given permission I don't think it right that these babies should be televised.

I for one would hate it if my birth into the world was seen by millions of people.

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