anyone watching 'Underage and Pregnant' on bbc3?

[alannabanana]

not sure if its on normal tv even - i've been watching on the iplayer, but its ridiculously fascinating! these poor young girls have no idea what they're in for, they seem to think it won't that hard looking after a baby - my god i'm 28 and i still found it INCREDIBLY hard in the early days. i think the key thing with the girls (at least in the episodes ive seen) is that they have their mum pretty much doing 50/50 care if not more, and i can't help but think its really not fair on the poor grand-mum.

anyway, the main crux of my musings about this show is that NO-ONES BREASTFEEDING!!! it seems never to enter their minds that breastfeeding might be an option - is this a real problem amoung young people here? do they think theres something gross or weird about breastfeeding?? hadn't we better sort this out as a society here??!!

i watched that show when it was orignally broadcast so a while ago now. I also found it quite interesting to watch although got really frustrated with the some of the things on the show.

well i've seen a few of these. i do know what you mean, however in the one i saw last night the first girl (from the 'non scumbaggy family') went back to school at 7 weeks and mum took over. so potentially making bfing quite difficult. her mum obviously wanted her to carry on her education.

the 2nd mum seemed very overpowering, to the extent of taking parental responsibility. she was doing the night feeds etc, again, making bfing quite difficult.

a lot of these young mums are from families who, statistically are less likely to bf. sad as that is.

i guess i would just feel better if there was some mention of it, like 'i've decided not to breast feed as it would mean i couldnt go back to school.' but when its not even mentioned as an option it just worries me. they seem to cover quite a lot of social, physical and emotional areas in the programme, so i would have thought it would come up at least once, but obviously not.
for the record, im not some kind of bfing evangelist! i just think its a shame that young mothers arent up for it.

one of them definately did breastfeed. the girl who was sent home from hosp only to deliver on her mums lounge floor an hr later.

yes i remember that one. think she's the only one.

yes, she was the only one. it would definately be hard to do around school time.

ruddy - i saw that one with the overpowering mum - she had the baby in with her at night didn't she. call me crazy, but a vital part of caring for your new baby is going through the night feed thing, torturous as it is. surely her daughter should have been doing them, then her mum giving her a break once a week or something, but the mum said she actually quite liked it...something odd there i think, she was losing sight of the fact it wasn't her baby!

another flag that went up for me watching this was the amount of smoking going on. not just the teenage mothers themselves, but their boyfriends and sometimes their parents too! aargh! the zena episode was the worst for this - zena:"i know smoking can cause miscarriage but i can't quit." bbc man: "whats your greatest fear?" zena: "having a miscarriage"!!
i nearly threw the tv at the wall in frustration!

trikken - holy fcuk i havent seen that one! as if its not scary enough, she then has it on the floor at home!
can't miss that one when it comes on the iplayer!

yes the 'head chef' ahem.

head chef
she seemed to give up that job pretty sharpish when the baby was on its way.

The girl who gave birth on her mother's lounge floor wasn't the only one who opted to breastfeed. The Welsh girl whose birth was filmed (the little girl was named Seren I think) also breastfed.

oh sorry, thought she was. dont remember that one, might have missed it.