One born every minute

[firsttym]

Is it realistic or do they put the dramatic cases on ?

Realistic to a point but I do know tht when I was pregnant with DD1 and watching it would (literally) give me nightmares and neither of my actual labours were nightmare inducing. Despite some complications and a lot of blood loss in both labours I actually look back on them as lovely experiences. So if you’re pregnant I would recommend not watching as I don’t think it does any good!

Don't use it as your sole source of information on childbirth or if you find it worrying.

I found it endlessly fascinating and made DH sit through hours of it - much like I enjoy watching Nigella cook on TV, but it bears little resemblance to how I cook at home.

I love watching it. But not whilst pregnant.
If you’re pregnant definitely definitely don’t watch it. It’d be like setting yourself up for worst case scenario. The nice easy calm births are never going to make the best telly

In my antenatal class a few weeks ago, one of the dads there was a crew member on that show. He said it's really not what they make it out to be and very different in real life! Don't forget that anything on tv is subjective and designed to be entertainment, if they actually followed a woman in labour from start to finish I'm sure the show would be very different...and long!

Thanks everyone.

I watched the show to try and get over abit of phobia about child birth and to be honest it is working as im not thinking yeh i could do this, but some did seem to make it .... look like they were "going to die" as someone put it.

Thanks xx

My midwife told me not to watch it as she said it is dramatised. She said that in all her years of midwifery, she has never run down a hallway, shouting to other midwives. Lol
Each birth is different so try to prepare in other ways like reading birthing books or taking a class (hypnobirth is meant to be amazing)

Back about five years ago ‘red bikini girl’ as my NCT class called her, had a quiet calm waterbirth in a darkened room. It was notable for its calmness in contrast to other births, her birth position, everythingbreally. Worth looking up but no, it doesn’t have anything to do with it...

I remember 'red bikini girl' - an amazing and beautiful birth. Well worth watching.

Oddly I become obsessed with obem during pregnancy but can't be bothered otherwise. I found it interesting and thought-provoking.

But it's possibly only that if, like me, you like to know and consider ALL possibilities. I'm a bit of a control freak so I had a discussion beforehand about my preferences for all eventualities (like stay with the baby & leave me if we need to be separated - I had a weird fear baby would be lost or swapped!)

After I was 10cm dilated I thought we would be good to go.. however the midwife said we had to wait two hours for my twin one to descend! I had never ever heard of that or seen it on OBEM.. I thought you dilated, you pushed!

Badly edited, dramatised, half a story... load of rubbish. You would get more information watching eastenders labours 👍

All through my pregnancies I became obsessed with programmes like OBEM. I think that one is quite dramatic compared to others, there used to be one series called Home Birth Diaries, it was full of lovely uplifting and happy birth stories. Might be available on YouTube or something?

It actually gave me a false sense of security and made me feel labour was easier than it really was! I felt very lied to by it. My labour was far worse than most depicted on there, but may be because it was actually me going through it.

I've probs watched them all and there are plenty that seem totally fine and straightforward, so don't agree that they only pick dramatic ones.

Sometimes there's a dramatic back story (like the couple tried for years to conceive, or the mother is 15, or the dad is in the army and might not make it on time etc etc) and then the birth is easy. Sometimes to be fair the baby has a known condition, or gets stuck.

I agree I wouldn't take it as your sole prep for labour, but as long as you appreciate it's TV not an antenatal lesson then watch away!

Red bikini girl is worth watching. I think she did hypnobirthing. Super calm birth, in the pool, virtually no noise. My midwife said the same when I mentioned a home birth disturbing the neighbours. She said it was perfectly likely that I'd make "no noise at all"...

It is real. I girl I have met through a friend has been approached to be in it at birmingham's women's hospital... she said yes but o think it all depends on timing etc

I gave birth in LGI and it’s NOTHING like shown on the show!! They left me alone from the time my waters broke the entire nearly 40hour labour other than to tell me to not walk around when I wanted a bath. I was pushing on my own (I was 19 years old at the time) for about an hour before they came in and checked on me (becuse I was caveman growling) and rushed me to a proper room to give birth. Then she wouldn’t let me be in the position I wanted to be in and she man handled me into another position, after birth she dragged my placenta out causing me to bleed out and then I was left there alone and legs opened for hours, badly torn, before somebody came to sew me up... then the other midwife laughed and told me she sewed me up wrong and would now always have a “flap” on my vagina but “you’ll have more to worry about I’m sure”. I received no help in the ward afterwards, nobody even came to see me other than for the baby check in the evening. I still remember the rush of emotion I felt when I had no idea what to do and felt so alone.
So no! I don’t think it’s ANYTHING like shown!! It was horrible. However it is a reasonably correct portrayal of they actually did things decently for everybody and not just for a tv show

And they’re all real people afaik

I remember red bikini girl too- she's the main reason I wanted a water birth!

I was obsessed with it while pregnant. I watched a few after I'd had DD1 but it made me sob and sob as her brith was such a disaster I felt insanely jealous of everyone on OBEM. So I stopped and haven't watched since.

I'm another one who found that it doesn't overdramatise things as much as downplay them.

I watched it after my baby was born (I think I was trying to make sense of what had happened) and it just made me angry. All that cute jangly music, lots of jokes, women screaming which seemed to me at times to be played for laughs - it didn't chime with my experience at all. My birth experience was agonisingly painful, fast and terrifying. I hated every second of it. I didn't get that 'rush of love' moment when my baby was born either, that moment when the music swells and the baby is placed in its mother's arms - I just felt relief that the pain had stopped, then more fear and pain when they started stitching me up and I got the obligatory finger up the arse

I can't watch it now, it makes me too angry to see all those poor women labouring for our entertainment.

I watched it obsessively during my 1st pregnancy. It didn’t make me feel more relaxed about birth but it didn’t terrify me either.

What I don’t understand is why the majority of the women spend most of the time flat on their backs, even during the pushing stage???

Definitely avoid it until you have finished having your family. I hardly ever see it and the last night I saw a clip with the midwives bitching about some woman screaming and how they felt it was attention seeking and she should save her energy for pushing. For me, the best part about being in labour is you forget most of it once your hold your baby in your arms. I'm sure there wouldn't be many willing to go through it very often if we remembered all of it after giving birth

I watched Amanda Holdens one about childbirth a few days before I gave birth last time. I was terrified. My birth was perfect!

If your a nervous patient. Tell them it helps.

A work colleague and his wife were approached a few years ago. They considered it. He's a producer in the entertainment industry and once he saw OBEM's contract he refused to sign it.

You have little control over the edits or how you are portrayed and your "payment" is a DVD of your footage and a babygro.

@ElizabethLemon i thought exactly the same !!! Why on their backs ! I swear my
Friends said they were on all fours and i think id prefer that !