AIBU for wishing One Born Every Minute would put warnings on distressing episodes

[gimmeadoughnut123]

I watched OBEM a lot before pregnancy anyway, but have asked DH to watch it a few times, as I think he was under an illusion that birth was 'clean' (not a lot of blood, etc). I'm now half way through pregnancy.

I've watched it recently, two people had big bleeds that meant lots of doctors running around tending to Mum, and now I've seen one where baby isn't breathing properly on its own and has been rushed away to neo natal.

I'm aware these things do, very sadly, happen. But should they not put some sort of warnings on there as a heads up?! I don't care about the normal blood/poo/whatever in birth scenes, but I'm never prepared for the emotional stuff.

I keep saying I'm going to stop watching it whilst pregnant but it never happens.

The saddest one was when a woman with a long term brain injury gave birth during the labour, she was crying saying,"are they going to take my baby away, but I love her"
That was distressing.

You do realise that you want your partner to understand the reality of birth, but you don't want to be exposed to... What can actually during birth.

I watched Call The Midwife and OBEM with family members and close friends' who work or have worked in labour wards before getting pregnant myself and even before some of them got pregnant themselves, they were able to point out to me what things where wrong. I actually found the sub plots/back stories more distressing than the actual labours because of this.

I do sympathise as ofcourde seeing someone in distress who is going through something you'll be doing soon yourself. But I think it's fair enough that it's on after 9 and it's about giving birth, which means this will come up part of the time.

Perhaps every episode could have a generalised disclaimer of MAY CONTAIN x but at the end of the day you don't see too much of the gory details.

I hope your pregnancy runs smoothly. I had staff members rush on me in both pregnancies for different reasons so also know the reality of it and although I wish it on no one I think it's important to be aware so you can make preparations if worse comes to worse.

They do give warnings for distressing scenes in the channel 4 voiceover intro bit.

I watched OBEM when I was pregnant and I think it mentally prepared me for most eventualities. I was prepared for a horrendous labour.

What it does not show (obviously) is shit staff. As soon as the cameras start rolling obviously every midwife is amazing, no one f*cks it up etc.. And if they did they would never show it.

The only warning I would want is may contain scenes of lovely midwives which you probably wont get in real life

I find everything to do with childbirth distressing so they'd need a warning on every episode for me but I'm an adult who understands what it's about and therefore chooses not to watch it. I think your other half might benefit from an antenatal classes if he thinks babies come out all clean and lovely. Spoiler alert: they don't.

may contain scenes of lovely midwives which you probably wont get in real life

I have never seen a MW on OBEM that I would be happy to care for me, based on what is shown. What lovely ones are you watching?

I second (or third or fourth) antenatal classes. At ours, there was some discussion of baby coming out covered in vernix, etc. Surely, though, you just need to tell him baby will come out covered in stuff? Or doesn't he believe you?!

I have never seen a MW on OBEM that I would be happy to care for me, based on what is shown.

Yeah, one episode I watched, this poor women was screaming in agony and all the midwives went out of her room and cracked up laughing at her screams.

But that’s life and that’s pregnancy and that’s birth, warts and all. If you don’t want to be exposed to the scary stuff you should maybe stop watching it. Some people find it useful to equip them for when things do go wrong, which they do. Birth is dangerous and scary and some people don’t have the luxury of looking away, it’s their reality, every day. Perhaps if we didn’t look away, society would be better equipped to help parents dealing with loss or women dealing with birth trauma.

I stopped watching it after they had an extreme close up of a woman vomiting complete with soothing music in the background. No warnings. Disgusting.

That’s the reality of birth for many people. It doesn’t always go swimmingly well for everyone, things do go wrong pretty regularly. If you’re not prepared to face that reality, switch it off.