Real-life drama in One Born Every Minute
As One Born Every Minute moves to a new hospital, we hear midwife Harriet Baines' inspirational personal story…
new DOCUMENTARY One Born Every Minute WEDNESDAY / C4 / 9.00Pm
The cameras are back on the maternity ward to capture the drama and emotion as more mums give birth in the 11th series of C4’s One Born Every Minute.
After three years filming in Liverpool, the medical documentary moves to Birmingham Women’s Hospital where one of the team of midwives is Harriet Baines.
Harriet, 32, was born at this hospital and has now worked there for nine years. She also gave birth to her daughter there and knows all about the complications that can occur as when she was pregnant with Esther, now three, Harriet was diagnosed with cancer.
Here, Harriet tells TV Times how her own experience is now helping others… Have you always wanted to be a midwife?
It was a childhood ambition, which was very bizarre. My mum swears that I was about seven when I started talking about midwifery. Do you know how many babies you’ve delivered? It must be in the thousands. You do tend to lose count when you’re doing it every single day.
Were you keen to do the series? I thought it would probably be quite a good laugh and it has been really good for morale.
are you surprised that the mums are happy to be filmed?
I think they’re amazing to do it because, hopefully, the series can show a really positive side to giving birth. I don’t know whether it’s something I could do, though.
Your pregnancy was a bit more complicated than most…
When I was 31 weeks pregnant, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. I had just lost my dad to cancer so it was all very raw. Pregnancy hormones encourage everything to grow – cancer as well as babies – and when they scanned me again at 36 weeks, it had spread to my lymph nodes. I had to have a Caesarean and when my daughter was three months old, I had a full thyroidectomy and the lymph nodes removed from my neck. Then I had a form of radiotherapy called radioiodine where you’re not allowed any contact with children, so I was separated from my baby for two weeks, which was grim when she was six months old.
Do you ever draw on this experience in your work? Absolutely. There has only been one case when I have been quite open with a patient who was going along a similar journey, but it changes the way you look at things.
How do you cope after a particularly traumatic birth? A cup of tea and a bit of debrief with your fellow midwives is essential. They understand what you are talking about.
What qualities do you need to be a good midwife?
You have to be able to think on your feet. I’m constantly trying to think 10 steps ahead. And you’ve got to be able to have a laugh and be a compassionate human being. Developing a relationship with the mums-to-be is important because they need to trust you.
How do you involve the dads? You try to give them a job. I’m a great one for teaching a dad a good back massage because that is really useful. I remember how vital my husband was when I was in labour.
are you looking forward to watching the series?
I’m really excited. I’m going to have a popcorn night with some of my friends – I’ll cringe and they’ll probably cheer!