Midwifery, Childbirth and the Media by Ann Luce Vanora Hundley & Edwin van Teijlingen

Author:Ann Luce, Vanora Hundley & Edwin van Teijlingen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Target High Profile Birth Related TV Shows

Find ways to put pressure on shows like One Born Every Minute to address the problems they are contributing to, either through the producers or the broadcaster.

I made an attempt at this and created a petition on change.​org in 2015 for Channel 4, the UK broadcaster of One Born Every Minute, to portray a more balanced view of childbirth. Within three days the petition had 600 signatures from a single Facebook post. This elicited a high-profile media response that interpreted my petition as a demand to ban the show, which it wasn’t. Nevertheless it instigated a worthwhile debate in the media around the role that TV shows like can have on women’s view of birth and more importantly their level of fear. This culminated in a live radio debate on BBC Radio 5Live with the producers of the show in late 2015. This debate made it very clear to me that the producers don’t fully understand the impact their show has. If they were educated on the far-reaching impact of their show, they may be open to making some slight changes to their programme. For example, they could include a message at the beginning of the show that makes it clear that the series is about hospital births , but that other birth options are available. Furthermore, the producers could point out that the show is edited considerably to focus on the moments that they believe we’d like to see. Additionally, a more educational and informative narrative could be adopted in parts of the show to provide context. For example, if a woman is choosing to have an epidural , then either show a nurse or midwife talking to the woman to let her know the risks and impact on her baby, or have a narrator explain this to the viewer. These are small changes that could have a positive impact while not sacrificing the entertainment value of the show.

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