One Born Every Minute

The TV highlight of the year which everyone has been waiting for (no, just me?!) is back TONIGHT. . . 

ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE returns!

Now I spend a very large portion of my time advising my lovely Hypnobirthing couples to either not watch this program at all or to take it with a very generous pinch of salt.  But I have a confession, one that is hard to admit as a person who so strongly believes that we should show NORMAL birth in our media rather than a sensationalised version, that I am completely and utterly 100% obsessed with this program!  The thought that it is coming back to our screens tonight is making me go all giddy with excitement and I will without a doubt be as gripped to this series as I have with all the past ones.

Although this time watching the series I will be viewing from a very different perspective.  I have loved every single one so far but for very different reasons.  I guess I have always had a fascination with labour and birth but more out of morbid curiosity, I loved seeing how much a woman's body could take and felt like I was preparing myself for the very real likelihood that at some point in the future, I too would go through this transformative but horrific experience.  The more I watched, the more I convinced myself that yes it would be awful but if this many women before had managed it, then so would I! 

A revelation came when I started watching series 7 and 8 shown in 2015 when I was pregnant with my daughter.  We had attended our Hypnobirthing classes and I watched whilst remembering what our teacher had told us (they pick the ones which make interesting television).  Alongside watching normal birth and couples using Hypnobirthing techniques online, I had a far more balanced view this time round and could see that One Born was not exactly a fair representation of what labour and birth is like for the majority of women.

This year I will be watching not with morbid curiosity, but just in awe of what our incredible bodies do to bring new life in to the world.  I will watch knowing that these births have been specially picked because they have twists and turns and high risk pregnancies and inductions and emergency situations and funny moments, not because they show the normalities of every day, run of the mill labours (which in actual fact are more tea and crosswords than flashing blue lights and screaming!)  I will be watching with bated breath for those moments when the parents, after 9 months of waiting, finally get to lay eyes on their beautiful baby and cuddle them in and experience that feeling which nothing else compares to.  And I will enjoy it for what it is, the miracle of new life being born, but with the added drama necessary to make it interesting, award worthy television.

So I hope you enjoy watching if that's what you choose to do.  But just remember, they're making good TV, not good antenatal classes!  

​Emma x