your thoughts on the one born every minute series

[alannabanana]

just thought i'd start a thread so people can give their opinions on the series as a whole.
i really enjoyed it - when it first started i was apprehensive seeing as am currently pg with DC2, and thought it might a) bring back traumatic memories of DS1's birth and b) might spook me about having the next one, but after tonights ep i feel really pumped and excited about giving birth again. its scary sure, but seeing the moment mother holds baby for the first time on this show has sparked such warm fuzzy feelings in me, i feel totally ready to go thru it all again!

one thing i've noticed though is that they favoured the more dramatic medically controlled births over the natural calm births that don't need much intervention. i think i'd like to see more of the latter should they do another series, as that kind of birth is what one aims for! i know it makes better TV to show the dramatic stuff, but i think they could mix it up a bit. also, i think its important that women know about their birthing options - it isn't always flat on your back, epidural, episiotomy, forceps etc.

anyway, well done channel 4, its been great Tv, and i take my hat off to all those brave labouring women on the show. thank you for sharing.

I've enjoyed it.
But it seemed so common for the women to be told that the babies were in difficulty, that monitoring was necessary, keeping the woman on her back in the bed.
Maybe they just showed the more dramatic births or I only caught those particualr segments...i dont know.
Surely most of the time birth will be fairly straigh forward? I would have assumed so anyway.
I dont say this as someone with an axe to grind over how people labour or whatever, I know there's a fair bit of that and tbh I dont really care. But yeah, my overriding impression is that nature is not very trusted.
Or perhaps its just not convenient?

I watched five minutes of it and couldn't stop shaking and crying all night. Not good for people with bad birth memories.

The first episode made us have the talk about when / if to have a second baby. By the end of the series I am a little bit pregnant
I predict a population explosion.

The programme started 3 days after I found out I was pregnant, so have been watching it avidly (and only sometimes thinking 'if only they had shown this a month sooner' ).

I think it has been quite good at showing a range of births, although I agree there has been maybe a bit too much of an emphasis on those with complications. I really liked the waterbirth it looked so calm compared to all the others. I can see it would be traumatic though if you had bad birth memories but as a first timer I have generally found it reassuring and its helped familiarise me with some of the things that might happen. I have also cried buckets at all the beautiful babies

I would love them to do another series, but they'd better not film during the autumn as that's my nearest maternity unit!

im glad im not the only one who thought it was a bit heavy on the dramatic births. it seemed the words 'baby isn't happy so we have to monitor' were said all too frequently. im guessing that for every one of those there were 5 normal complication-free births filmed but they would have been less 'interesting' to show. shame though because it isn't always traumatic - a woman's body is designed for this, but you'd be forgiven for thinking its a battle against your body after watching this show.

oh yeah, and i also thought joy and fabio were awesome!

I couldnt watch it due to recent traumatic childbirth. In fact Im not sure I'll ever watch another birth programme ever.
Im sure it was uncomfortable viewing for a lot of women

DH couldnt bear to watch it

I liked it a bit, but inevitably just watche d the first half as it was a bit same old stuff for me.

What was enlightening for me is the way the midwives seemed to sit around discussing things with the other midwives rather than checking on their patients. I always assumed they were busy with delivering babies and that was why they left me alone for what seemed like hours panicing and stressing !

This is the first 'birth' programme I've managed to watch in nearly 3 years after a traumatic birth with dd. The first one gave me a panic attack, I've sobbed through most, had to look away at certain points. One I had to turn off. But, it has forced me to seek proper counselling because it's made me realise how much the memories have controlled my life.

So, it's been a positive programme in that respect.

I'd like to see a programme looking at homebirths or based solely in a birthing centre. It would be nice to see an antidote to the hospital environment where birth is concerned.

I liked the couple who played cards (she was a fitness instructor) and the parents of the baby with the bowel issues (Lisa?).

I liked it alot. DH HATED it. I am pg with first baby, and have been terrified of childbirth, but with this programme I kept thinking 'okay, i think I can handle that' no matter what was thrown up. I also learned alot about what may happen, or what the midwives may say etc. I did not realise that these were 'dramatic' births, like other posters have said, so that is somehow reassuring too. But watching the epidural (was it Joy?) was the thing that freaked me the most. But I felt so sorry for that young girl last night who was made so sick with the gas and air. Favourite couple (I cannot remember their names) were the horsy woman who was having the baby by someone other than her partner (I cried when she went in for the emc), and he was so sweet. The forceps scene last night though was horrendous. I disliked the husband in the first episode who locked his wife in the oitlet while she was labouring. That made me just watching feel all panicky.

Oh, and SHowOfHands... I really admire your courage. To watch it after what you have been through and to seek counselling. Well, that takes alot of guts.

DH loved it, he kept reminding me it was on. Silly fool, we're just about to start ttc dc2 and it's put me right off

Thing is that any programme shown at prime time is going to be there for entertainment rather than education or information. Woman turns up, taken into dimly lit room and birthing pool, nice and calm, baby born, no hiccups. Lovely for them but dull as ditchwater for the audience, let's be honest.

I did think they spent a lot of time sitting around chatting but we have no idea what the editing was like on that. Who knows what was or wasn't happening at that time so we can't really judge.

There were heaps of biscuits being eaten though! I worried about giving the mws tins of biccies when I had dd but obviously it's a great pressie

Ooh I missed your post PrivetDancer, that's so sweet! Congratulations!

Congratulations PD. If it's a boy, can you call him Fabio

I love the series, cried at the very beginning of each episode when they showed that little boy witht he pet lip. Reminded me of DS1 when he was born.

Then I cried a little more after each baby was born.

Watching the last episode now as DH reused to watch it.

thanks

I did love Joy and Fabio, but i'm not so sure Fabio goes with our surname (Labio)

Showofhands - there is a series called Home Birth Diaries which is shown on Discovery Home and Health on Sky... tis brilliant.

Sorry. PMSL at Fabio Labio....

Thought it could have been fab but watched the first one and hated the way it had been edited so that there was little information about what was going on and focusing on the husband taking the piss out of his wife in labour. Utter shite.

Watching stuff like this motivated me to go for a birthing centre after seeing a series based in one in the New Forrest.

I have loved this series although DH has refused to watch it and I end up wailing when the baby is born Am pregnant with number one and have found it very informative and strangely reassuring even though I thought it would be utterly terrifying.

Am suprised how crap some of the blokes have been though - that husband and the teenage son who spent most of the time blowing up a surgical glove and just peered round to look up the mum's nightie when the baby was crowing - WEIRD!

I loved it, cried at every episode and wanted to rip this coil from my womb and procreate immediately afterwards too.

I agree most of the births were on the dramatic side and it would be nice to see some calm, serene births or at least some different ones in different positions and places but on the whole it was great.

PrivetDancer how absolutely lovely, hearty congratulations

Don't have any fancy channels. Good thing really or I'd spend hours watching gripping documentaries like The Boy Who Had a Hammer for a Head, When Cheerleaders Turn Nasty etc.

And I'm not brave btw, quite the coward or I would have faced this sooner.

PrivetDancer, in the spirit of OBEM inspiring the conception, will you be broadcasting the birth to us nosey few the viewing public? Congratulations.

Ooooo SOH, I think MN should do a live birth! PD, you've been nominated seeming as your baby was conceive because of one

BTW Fabio Labio sounds like a rude body part.

sure! I'll film it on my phone and pop it on you tube!