How realistic is One Born Every Minute?

[citymumtobe]

Currently 30+1 with DC1 and have been avidly watching OBEM, despite telling myself not to. Our NCT teacher said it's probably best not to watch it as it's essentially like other reality television programmes and there's a certain amount of manipulation/editing involved. Interested to hear how realistic people think the show is in general and whether it reflects your experience of childbirth/time in delivery suite - or do you feel like throwing things at the TV?! One thing I noticed for instance is that most of the ladies give birth lying down when one thing that's drummed into you is the importance of gravity to the whole process...

Has there been any where they find out there is something "wrong" with the baby when it's born? We found out DS2 had Downs when he was born.

Another one here who gave birth lying down. Was hooked up to heart rate monitor so was told I had to be on my back. That was only for delivery though. Spent the rest of the time on feet or on all fours.

Also agree that OBEM show midwives with women most of the time. IME I was pretty much left on my own for 10 hours before fully dilated and ready to push. Was a bit concerned about lack of attention but mostly it was just very boring.

One thing that I always think is that there are soooooo many staff in the room every time. I struggled to get anyone to see me before being fully dilated then only had one person in room for hours before emer c sec. Also amazed how easy it seems to be to get pain relief.... I was told "if you think you can have it now what will you have later?!" should have complained I know.... Anyway...... Happy little Ds worth every second of it

Agree with wipsglitter lots of vomiting here but thankfully no poos

I think it's realistic except the 2 hospitals featured were much much quieter than the hospital I gave birth in. Eeery in comparison. I would like to see them film in a busy place.

I've had 5 births. I watched the ast programme and thought it fairly realistic except for as mentioend above the fact there are masses of staff on hand,. Instead you can tend to have hours and hours with no sight of any midwife at all. The very boring, on your own comments above are very true.

With the twins I gave birth to one standing up but not the second.

It can be very slow. I never had a labour much shorter than 20 hours or may be one was less but very long which is quite wearing.

I also think the last programme which showed mothers not really wanting an epidural when they started and then later when pain got bad perhaps wanting them but it was too late is true and also reflects the fact that lots of women can manage without and when it feels unbearable it may just be because it's nearly over and you don't need one (although I realise that's quite a generalisation) but I did notice that with both of them.

Was the baby last night injured during the instrumental birth? No one mentioned it.

I'm pretty sure my reaction would have been " What have you done to him?!??! Is he hurt? Will he be okay? What caused it?"

Is this routine with forceps?

I also missed a bit near the start of the programme. Was the women who had previously lost a baby not expecting a CS? Was that for position? I had the impression that she had choosen a CS because of worries about the baby relating to her losing her first and was quite comfortable with the idea of a CS, but then was sent home and expected to labour naturally. I was when she came in bleeding later. Though glad that the baby seemed okay after the CS.

Sorry... I really shouldn't be watching this while pregnant with PFB!

Forceps usually leave a mark, sometimes just a red patch that fades quickly, other times a bad bruise or a cut. In some cases the baby is permanently damaged - it has nerve damage or brain damage, but that's relatively rare.

Because the mum who lost her baby lost it at 22 weeks she would have been classified as having a late miscarriage rather than a stillbirth. I cringed when the midwife called her a "first time mum" - I'm sure it must have hurt. She was due to have the section because the baby was transverse breech but just before they did it they found the baby had moved, so they wouldn't do it any more. When she came in with bleeding later the baby was transverse again so they decided to go ahead with the c section. When she came into the hospital first no one seemed to realise that she had lost her first baby, which I think is very bad of them. They should have been aware and they should have treated her with more care. As it was they treated her like any first time mum who had no worries.

Thanks for clarifying the story of that mum, I hadn't realised that the original reason for the CS was positioning (though figured it might have been when they sent her away). I worried that they weren't aware/sensitive to her previous loss. Sounds like they weren't as good as they might have been, but that wasn't the reason for the original CS as I had assumed (must have missed the first mention of the baby's position).

And thanks for telling me about forceps... I still hope they come nowhere near me and baby, but if they do I'll know what to worry about expect.

Something that I hadn't realised until DS1 was born is that they may use forceps to move the baby during a c section. He was born with marks on his head which faded after a few days.

ime labour is far longer than an hour usually

I think apart from the on the back thing it is pretty acurate and does a good range of easy, to lots on intervention births.

I always end up on all fours to deliver (even the last one that I very nearly delivered on my own)

I had an ELC and compared with my experience the c-sections represented are fairly accurate, though of course they skip out all the waiting around, i.e. the general length of time to set up, to cut you open, to actually give you your child, to be stitched up (totally missing from almost all births on there as you might expect, but a major part of a c/s IMO...), etc.

The other thing from my one experience is that I saw many different midwives and didn't really get that chance to get to know any of them in the 5/6 days I was there which was a bit bizarre I thought. Oh, and they wake you excruciatingly early for no reason whatsoever, which seems fairly typical of all areas of hospitals! (On a similar note, one bossy midwife woke me at 6am the morning after my c/s and told me to have a shower 'while it was quiet and no-one was in there'. During my entire stay I think I only ever saw two people having a shower!) Everyone's right when they say you have to really stand your ground to stick to what you want as well.