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Inviting the cameras
Film crews - even ones as well behaved as BBC teams - can sometimes be seen as a bit of a nuisance when you're trying to get a job done. Sheila Appleby, Southern Derbyshire's head of Midwifery Services, explains her reason for inviting the cameras.
A programme-by-programme guide for the documentary series Desperate Midwives, about the midwives who work at Derby City General hospital.
Midwife Sue Gaskin loves her job and her varied case load. She’s a pillar of the community and bumps into mums she’s looked after and babies she’s delivered wherever she goes. Now she’s looking after an unreliable pregnant teenager who keeps missing appointments despite the fact that stillborn babies run in the family. One in every 200 births in the UK is stillborn and it’s a real concern for Sue.
Sue also cares for glamorous mum, Victoria who is expecting her first baby and wants there to be "no pain and no poo!" An average labour for first time mum’s is around 12 hours. Victoria opts for a water birth on the labour ward of Derby City General Hospital but it may not be the birth she hopes for. Just walking into hospital, her waters break and run down her legs – just proving the unpredictable nature of childbirth.
Sue then helps deliver her friend Diane’s twins. One of the twins has stopped growing so she needs to be induced. The labour progresses slowly and the babies are showing signs of distress. The doctors are called in and they resort to an instrumental intervention - the ventouse suction cup - to get the baby out as quickly as possible.
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Content last updated: 16/05/2005
