One born every minute...

[redlemonade]

No it was just a general statement. I don't know, having done it I think many of them are about normal. Certainly they throw in particularly dramatic births for artistic effect, but having read a lot of the birth stories on here I can't help but think there is often a bit of drama

I sometimes wonder if women get more stressed watching the drama though. I know I do! If the drama is normalised then that becomes what we expect, therefore it becomes what we do as well. Fear is what causes a lot of the pain IMHO.

I've not seen the calm births on OBEM but then, I gave up watching after a couple of episodes

 

[Gizzyy]

I agree with the whole drama thing. I haven't watched many episodes but it's not really all about how loud they are actually giving birth, it's just the whole arguing, screaming at people who are trying to help sort of soap opera that sometimes happens on obem. Obviously they have to make it interesting for the audience watching but meh.. I just don't like it imo..

 

[mrsmummy2]

I screamed a few times during the pushing stage, so I'd say I totally understand why women scream. But as people have said, I think they obviously need to pick the most interesting/dramatic/noisey/scary/happy births etc to make the viewing worth watching.
I love watching OBEM, but somtimes I do think wow, this is gonna scare the hell out of people who haven't done it before because it scares me and I have!

 

[modified]

Aren't the people picked pre-birth? I was reading a womans magazine or a paper or something and one of the OBEM mum's was telling her story... said she was phoned a good bit before birth because they were going to be in her hospital when she was due and asked if she'd like to be filmed. So they can't really be picking based on the most "exciting" birth.

 

[Blizzard]

As far as I'm aware, yes they are. I really don't think they're that dramatic. Can I ask, those who feel it's really over the top, first baby? Not implying anything! Genuinely curious. X