Susanne Remic is a primary school teacher, freelance writer and parenting blogger. She writes at Ghostwritermummy and Maternity Matters and in between all of that she regularly wins mummy of the year awards for running around after her two children, aged six and 19 months. This is her pregnancy blog: an online diary of her third pregnancy as she strives to overcome two difficult births, one angel child and one awkward toddler. Join Susanne as she shares every step of her journey from bump to baby!
Can't watch, won't watch
By Susanne Remic on 10 Jan 2012
This week, a very popular medical-based programme launched it’s new series on the television. I was asked to write a blog post linked to the first episode over on Ghostwritermummy, which I was only too happy to do. I told myself that I would watch the programme when it aired on the television.
It’s only a bunch of women giving birth to their babies, after all. How hard can it be to sit down in the comfort of my own living room and watch that? After all, it’s only five weeks until I will be amongst women like this having my own baby. I ought to be able to watch, right?
Wrong.
I got at least 15 seconds into the opening credits and it all became a little too much for me. I don’t even think it was the memories of my son’s traumatic birth which led to me switching off and burying my head in the sand, either. It wasn’t just the noises - the moans, the groans and the screams - it was something more. It was the intrusion, perhaps.
Yes, I know that each and every woman agreed to have her birth experience filmed and then also agreed to have it air on national television, but that doesn’t mean I have to feel comfortable watching it. What an intensively personal moment to have broadcast to the entire population. What an incredibly brave, yet bizarre, thing to do.
I know that many disagree and I can totally understand why this is such a popular programme. I refused to enter into the debate on Facebook and Twitter last week (mainly concerned with birthing positions and insensitive medical staff, along with wimp-ish dads and overtly expressive women) but I did pop on to the Birth Trauma Association’s Facebook group page.
Most of the women in the group chose not to watch the public birthing sessions last week. Those who did quickly sought comfort and guidance from the other 894 members who knew only too well what kind of pain was being felt right then.
The debate over there was regularly punctuated with demands for complaints to be made to the programme makers and painful reminders of individual birth traumas which had been unearthed yet again by something seemingly - to the rest of the population - harmless. After all, giving birth is the most natural thing in the world, isn’t it?
For some, giving birth is not a natural experience and is one that can take a lifetime to understand and to come to terms with. This week’s televisual treat was not shared by all, but I had to admit that the programme makers had not really done anything wrong. Yes, I’m sure that scenes were cleverly edited to make good television, but at the end of the day that’s what the general public want.
Me? I just want to have my baby with as few people in the room as possible. I don’t want the whole world watching me. Call me old fashioned...
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