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Childbirth

Share experiences and get support around labour, birth and recovery.

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Original poster

Dawn gets a baby on at 9pm bbc3

23 replies

Miarey · 12/09/2008 20:55

Has anyone seen this? It's a repeat.
I'm phobic about childbirth. Do you think I should watch it or will it just make things worse?

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fedupandisolated · 12/09/2008 21:00

Am watching it now.......

fedupandisolated · 12/09/2008 21:09

Gosh this programme is shocking. Nothing like positive imagery!

Original poster

Miarey · 12/09/2008 21:13

I can't watch. Just burst into tears thinking about turning it on. Maybe I shouldn't watch it.

OP posts:

naturalblonde · 12/09/2008 21:15

Don't watch it. I'm due on Wed, and am sitting here cying my eyes out. am so scared, and I already have a dd, have done it before but am so so scared.

Thankyouandgoodnight · 12/09/2008 21:21

i haven't seen in but i do know from watching birth videos on the internet that they seem to look 10 times worse thsan going through it yourself for some reason - even the good ones!!

I've done it twice and with a 7week old would still do it again tomorrow. I'm broody as hell!!

Try reading 'Childbirth without Fear'.

Thankyouandgoodnight · 12/09/2008 21:22

The 2nd time is SO much easier - my 2nd was huge compared to first and was much easier and without any pain at all believe it or not. Much easier to 'pass' / get out.

fedupandisolated · 12/09/2008 21:22

Oh nb - was your last labour really horrible?

Just remember that second labours are usually much easier than first labours and often much quicker too.

Have to say some of the stuff showing on there now is better - massage, gas and air - Dawn Porter has just tried the gas and air and has dissolved into giggles.

fedupandisolated · 12/09/2008 21:26

Dawn is looking at a placenta now and looks like she might hurl. Bless her.

Original poster

Miarey · 12/09/2008 21:47

I'm not watching but like the commentary...

OP posts:

naturalblonde · 12/09/2008 22:04

1st labour wasn't that bad, was about 10 hours, ventouse, dd's heart rate dropped very low, but didn't really know that at the time, and had epidural, but saw the episiotomy bit in DGAB and freaked. Not helped as I woke up with contraction type pains the other night, (which stopped after 10 mins) but reminded me how much it does hurt. And the fact that you can't guarantee getting an epidural, it's all just terrified me.

amitymama · 13/09/2008 08:56

I just watched it on iPlayer and it was pretty good. I thought it was great that Dawn had all of the typical worries and misconceptions about birth that many women do before they become pregnant and then after witnessing a birth and seeing how joyful the babies' arrivals are, she felt more comfortable with it and wasn't so terrified. It just goes to show that we are really kept in the dark about birth until we are about to do it ourselves. I suppose that's because we don't witness our friends, family and neighbours give birth anymore, as most women did in decades and centuries past. Very interesting stuff.

franke · 13/09/2008 09:02

Agree with amitymama. I started watching this thinking "you silly girl, why are you making this programme?" But I was completely sucked in by the end. I was impressed that she chose to focus on normal births in a birthing centre and was moved by her transition from terrified girly, worried about the impact on her sex life to a woman with a much deeper understanding of the process and the emotions involved. I thought she showed great empathy.

SilverSixpence · 13/09/2008 11:33

I would have been terrified if i had watched it before giving birth - there were a few worst case scenarios described which were quite scary! Miarey if you're phobic about birth don't watch it but get some proper advice and support from your midwife/doctor.

Anybody else think there were some dodgy camera angles in this programme?

lauraw78 · 13/09/2008 11:52

I feel like this was a documentary about 'Childbirth for Dummies', perhaps if I was 18 I would think differently, but I'm on my third pregnancy and I just found the whole thing very childish and uncomfortable! Kudos to her for realising the errors of her ways at the end ;-), but I dunno, it just didn't sit right with me, guess I'm hormonal and not in the mood to watch someone who's more obsessed with what her 'vagina' will look like after birth, not the actual child =)

Original poster

Miarey · 13/09/2008 22:49

What's wrong with worrying about what her vagina will look like after the birth? Why do people feel they must martyr themselves to be a mother?
I really don't understand that attitude.

OP posts:

amitymama · 13/09/2008 23:12

While I personally never worried about the consequences of giving birth on my vagina (or at least not more than a cursory fleeting thought), I can understand why so many girls and women do. As I said, most women know so little about birth until they experience it for themselves, or at least not until they become pregnant. Many people only have what they've heard about, urban myths, and what they've seen represented and made fun of in the media. A girl is lucky to get the sex talk from her parents these days, let alone a frank discussion of what birth is like and what it actually does to your body. No one seems to want to touch the subject with a 10-foot pole, preferring to leave things shrouded in mystery, as Dawn says at the very beginning of the documentary.

lauraw78 · 15/09/2008 00:15

Miarey, I'm not saying its wrong, and what I said certainly wasn't a statement of martyrdom, I just felt she concentrated on those aspects a leetle too much, of course none of us want to end up with a mangled vagina, but at the end of the day, its not something I've ever given too much thought too.

Thats all!

Klaw · 15/09/2008 00:44

FFS, I keep missing it

amitymama · 15/09/2008 07:29

Klaw, you can watch it on BBC iPlayer online for the next few days.

Original poster

Miarey · 15/09/2008 11:45

Lauraw78 my comment wasn't really directed at you. No offense meant.

I guess I'm just sick of people thinking that as soon as a woman becomes pregnant she ceases to be her own person. Having babies is a wonderful thing but I guess my focus is really on the years after that, when you are developing that baby into an adult. So, to me, a woman should feel she has the right to continue to be a 'sexual being' even after childbirth. I think it's important for a woman and her partner, their relationship and their ability to function as happy parents. I know everyone has different priorities, and what makes me happy won't make the next person happy.

OP posts:

Highlander · 15/09/2008 14:04

didn't see it, but let me guess................

the woman had a 'normal birth', no tearing, no ventouse/forceps, no epiudural, no stitching under spinal, no labouring for days and ending up as emCS. At no point was the woman left alone, begging for a midwife.

Because that's just soooooooooooooooo representative of childbirth isn't it?

Blocky · 15/09/2008 14:22

No, but having had a very traumatic birth myself with my first, at least you know that it is a possibility to have relatively straightforward birth the second time round.

I watched this programme a few months ago when it was first aired, and to be honest found it very uncomfortable viewing. She didn't know that the two mums-to-be who agreed to let her follow and film the births were going to bee pretty much textbook. It could have gone another way. This wasn't Hollywood, it was Hammersmith (well East Acton technically)

lauraw78 · 15/09/2008 19:37

Miarey I'm with you exactly on what you say, I totally agree with you.

I suppose you have to just see the programme for what it was, as I said, if I was in my early 20's I would have thought differently again!

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