Dawn gets a Baby on BBC 3 last night - your views please !

[katface]

Did any one see this last night ?

Is it just me or did an inordinate amount of time get devouted to conversations about fannies and sex post-birth ?

I thought it was good for the mother nad baby to have a natural birth.

I am sure if I had had long discussions with hubby about the size of my fanny after birth he would have preferred that I didn't push a 7 lb baby through it, but he had no choice

At the end of the day, most women don't sit around calculating the size of their fannies post-birth, they go for a natural birth for different reasons.

What do you think ?

I watched it as im expecting my first baby and i was intrigued. i found it a bit disconcerting that it was all around post birth sex etc, i loved the mannequins in water birth, ventouse and forceps, found that really visual way to explain how that works and loved gory poke in placenta.

i think your right, women opt for natural childbirth for various reasons and the journalist was obsessed about the physiological impact rather than the emotional experience of starting your family.

It actually really brought home to me how far a chasm has developed between my non-pregnant/mother friends and childless ones. My friends who have never been pregnant are obsessed about the pain and the effects on your bits. Those that have been through it, focus on the overwhelming feeling that comes through carrying and having a baby.

doctorswife - i had this fab Asian midwife (the 2nd shift) in the birth centre who said do you want to look at the placenta ? we said "yes" and she spent ages explaing it to us while my son was getting some oxygen to help him take his first few breaths and then cleaned up. it was like a biology lesson, so glad i saw it. it was my baby's "home" for 9 months !

my second mw was a wonderful, caring mw, with over 30 year's experience delivering babies. i loved the woman and took a photo of her to show ds later !

i think the birth can be a very different sort of experience depending on who you have with you and the type of mw you end up with.

i am sure if the first mw hadn't gone away and the lovely second one had never arrived i would have ended up in hospital, as i was losing my contractions.

with second mw, my baby arrived in exactly 55 minutes ! : ) she was a godsend.

also you are right about it being a good idea to see a birth - the thing that convinced me to try a water birth (outside a hospital) was an NCT video i saw when pregnant.

it made me realise that if women had been giving birth naturally for millions of years, it was what their bodies were programmed to do.

of course things can go wrong, but it is worth a try !

oh forgot to add - again as an advert. for water births you are less likely to tear and require fewer or no stiches if you have a water birth. that is beacuse the water softens your bits and there is less friction as the baby pops out into the water. they have done studies and statistics on this.

i had a minor tear but no stiches required at all. it healed naturally although it was very sore (esp. when you pee) for a week or so.

I thought the programme was fab. Expecting my first in november (Hi Doctorswife ). Was very interested to see forceps and ventouse (not as scary as I thought)

Wanted DH to see a birth because he is a bit sqeamish and I wanted him to get an idea of what to expect. He complained a bit when I asked him if we could watch it but he ended up being fascinated - suprisingly so at the placenta bit (normally anything that has the slightest whiff of blood has him leaving the room)

V funny and moving and real!

i thought it was good too, esp. seeing babies being born in water, my problem was with the jounalist's obssession with fannies and post-birth sex !

i was hoping to have some views on the latter ?

i had the opposite reaction - the forceps and ventouse scared me to death. the forceps looked like some ancient instrument for pulling turkey's out the oven !

i think it was very real. my friend had her baby three weeks ago and was texting me frantically going mental saying it was scaremongering and not to pay attention. but i really liked it, I'm used to watching discovery home and health where every baby is engineered out through Pitocin and epidural! this was so factual. i have a homewater birth planned but the prog really helped me prepare for the unforseen. and although the journo went doo-lally over the episiotomy i was interested to see it done.

Well I kind of understand why she was on about the fanjo thing. I think it's to do with when you aren't at the point where you are ready to have babies, childbirth seems like the most insane thing to put yourself through. Perhaps for her the worst part of all that is the idea of what's going to happen to your lady bits!! So perhaps her personal journey was to find out if it's all worth it, or not. I think she got her answer

Before I reached the point where my desire for having babies was greater than my desire to keep my body as it is (was!) I couldn't imagine ever wanting to do it. Labour seemed incredibly terrifying (when I was 18 I was birthing partner for my best mate). Oddly enough, now that it is only 2 months away (good Lord ) I am not terrified - worried, nervous but it seems do-able.

What a ramble. So, to conclude, erm... maybe she thought she was reflecting what young women worry about.

Bah! What do I know?????

Er.... and therefore I agree that she did go on about the sex thing but I understand why iyswim! Phew!