Dawn gets a baby « A Midwife’s Muse

Dawn gets a baby

February 29, 2008 at 4:04 pm | In Birth, Midwife, Midwifery, Pregnancy, childbirth | 8 Comments
Tags: Birth, forceps, ventouse, Waterbirth

Do not press the link if you are squeamish!

BBC three, last night, just by chance I started watching this programme and was entranced. It is advertised as ………

‘Journalist Dawn Porter goes in search of the truth about childbirth. Like many young women, Dawn terrified by the prospect of childbirth. As well as from the pain, she worries that her body will be damaged beyond repair and the prospect that sex will never be the same again. Finding her friends unwilling to spill the beans about what it’s really like to give birth, she seeks out a first-time mum who will let her witness a birth firsthand.’

I am so frustrated at not being at work because I can’t recommend this to the pregnant women. Dawn went right to the ‘nitty gritty’, it was all those questions you don’t know the answer to, all those things that you haven’t even thought about in down-to-earth, humourous at times, but a very honest 60minutes of gems for 1st time Mums. From scooping poo out of a birth-pool, gas and air, a pool birth, ventouse, forceps, to what a placenta looks like. Yes, it is gory but not gratuiously so. Basically it’s educationally entertaining.

I also think it would be good for many women who have given birth before and are tremulous about a repeat of their first experience. One of daughter’s friends, expecting her second baby in three weeks, was chatting to me today and mentioned that she had watched it and it had made her think about using ‘Active Birth’ rather than having an epidural the minute she was in hospital. What had made her think this way was not that the women ‘enjoyed’ labour, it was quite obvious that the women found some of it painful (understatement), but how they were immediately afterwards, mobile and catheter free. Obviously not 100% fine but equally not surrounded by, and wired up to, all sorts of medical tubes and gadgetry. Daughters had encouraged her, telling her that I used to facilitate the Active Birth classes so had lots of info. End result is that she and her partner will be coming round next week for a one-to-one on things to do to encourage normal progress in labour and different coping strategies. I’m really looking forward to being midwife me again, even if it is only for a couple of hours!

8 Comments »

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hi there, cant get the link to work – are you able to fix that. cheers sarah

Comment by Sarah Stewart — March 1, 2008 #

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Sarah – It’s working okay on my screen. This is it if still not good for you http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b0091xhd.shtml

Comment by midwifemuse — March 1, 2008 #

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I watched it, having recently had a baby I’m not sure if I thought the programme was sending out a positive message – it seemed to be a bit scare mongering

Comment by debs — March 3, 2008 #

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Debs – I thought it started out rather scary and I think Dawn’s reactions before the births were the same as many pre-first birth women’s, and their partners, would be but I felt that by the end it had all been put into perspective, as Dawn herself acknowledged.

Comment by midwifemuse — March 3, 2008 #

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I saw the show & LOVED it – should be required antenatal viewing – IMO.

Comment by Agatha — March 3, 2008 #

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Agatha – I thought the same but you can see from the comment from Debs that she thought otherwise. Perhaps it’s a midwife thing.

Comment by midwifemuse — March 3, 2008 #

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Maybe – I taught part of an antenatal class last night & people there had watched it & loved it too – many though, had turned it off when they got to instrumentals. The women who watched till the end liked it. There was nothing scary in the program, & nothing too abnormal either.

Comment by Agatha — March 6, 2008 #

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Agatha – Yes, I thought that the issues women may finding ’scary’ or daunting were dealt with in a very down-to earth way but I do think it was the end that tied everything up so well so those who turned off earlier would have missed out.

Comment by midwifemuse — March 7, 2008 #

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