The 'One Born Every Minute' Antithesis!

BBC’s ‘Yorkshire Midwives on Call’ is the Antithesis to One Born Every Minute that we’ve been waiting for!

It’s been a heavy month in the world of birthing babies. After the media’s universal misinterpretation of The Ockenden Report, midwives have been vilified, ‘natural birth ideology’ slammed and pregnant women around the country left unjustly terrified. So the arrival of BBC’s ‘Yorkshire Midwives on Call’ couldn’t be more welcome.

The new BBC documentary follows a continuity Midwife Team in Bradford, Yorkshire supporting women and their families prepare for their births at home.

There’s something I always say about birth and the way it’s depicted in the media in general; and it’s that most birth isn’t put on TV because quite honestly, no one would watch it. When birth unfolds the way we expect it to (which is more likely when in the home environment) there really isn’t much to see. Aside from the moment where a tiny human baby makes their appearance, the whole thing can be pretty uneventful.. and why would anyone want to watch THAT?

The first episode of the series captures the excitement, joy and anticipation that families deserve to feel in the final few weeks of their pregnancy. Preparing for the most exciting day of their lives, not the most terrifying.

Birth is presented as a family affair. Children are around without question or suggestion of it being inappropriate. The birthing woman is celebrated as the GIVER of birth (not the midwife!). We met all kinds of women from all kinds of families. Home birth is presented as ‘for everyone’.

There is an innate trust in birth from the midwives and families whose stories are shared.

“Your mum did all the work, I just watched really’. Says one midwife to a baby.

Was it ‘perfect’ pregnancy and birth support? Nah, not always.

Was it edited through the lens of the patriarchy and medical system? Maybe a bit.

Were there bits to take with a pinch of salt? Yep

Was it different to EVERYTHING else we see on TV about birth? 100%

I finally felt a weight lift.

It wasn’t trying to be controversial, it wasn’t trying to be political, it wasn’t wasn’t even trying to ‘make a point’.

But it did.

That birth is ordinary.

Ordinary but extraordinary.

And you can do it.

There’s nothing you want to do more when you’re pregnant than soak up everything you can about what birth might be like, so the draw to watch One Born Every Minute and similar programmes is STRONG. So finally, this feels like a safe option, that might just reinforce the trust you have in yourself.