One Born Every Minute

The story of two young dads, both of whom desperately want to be with their partner during the birth, but will their wishes come true? Sean Tinghe (20) is younger than his partner Donna Kirkbride (28). He’s also in the British Army and been posted to Afghanistan with immediate effect. If his partner, Donna, has a long labour he’s worried he’ll have to leave before the birth. Donna is being induced which should hurry along the birth, but will that be enough? Beth Harrison (18) and Kurt have been together for 2 years. When Beth got pregnant the first time they thought it was too early in their relationship and terminated the pregnancy. They both regret that now and are looking forward to being parents. Kurt is determined to be at the birth, but complications arise and Beth has to choose whether Kurt or her mum go into theatre with her.

Fashion designers Heather and Danny Grieg, are extremely style-conscious. They’ve been together since they met at Art School when they were aged16 and they’re now 28. They now live and work together running their own fashion label. Heather wants a water birth and she’s designed her own costume for the occasion in crimson red. She’s also very stoical and manages pain exceptionally well. Both Kerry (29) & Paul (39) Brodie worked in sales where they met six years ago. Kerry’s last labour took 38 hours and the baby was born with forceps. She’s not good with pain, so she’s very much hoping things will be easier this time. Renae Cooke and Jonathan Pearson are both 28. They’re very playful and funny together but they’re also very different. Renae is a self confessed potato couch, whereas Jonathan is a fitness freak. She’s very close to her mum and wants her to be at the birth as well as Jonathan.

Jayne and Adam Chapman were childhood sweethearts. They’ve been on and off together since school. Jayne needs a caesarean because she has a placenta previa and if she goes into labour spontaneously she will hemorrhage. The ward is busy so they have to wait and amuse themselves playing Eye Spy and generally being silly and affectionate. Teenager Leanne Fearnley (18) doesn’t see eye to eye with Carol, her mother, who finds it hard to forgive her daughter for getting pregnant so young and without a steady relationship. Leanne doesn’t seem to care what her mother thinks. She’s asked her friend Lori-Beth to be her birth partner and together they spend the time on the ’phone, updating Facebook and discussing tabloid gossip. She explains to the midwife that the scar on her face was caused by a boy at school who stabbed her with a chisel. It’s her first child and she being induced because at 39 weeks (nearly full-term) there have been reduced foetal movements. After 27 hours Leanne’s waters are broken by the midwife and she’s given a hormone drip to accelerate labour. Leanne’s mum turns up and stays for the birth which occurs naturally and quite quickly. Rowena and Akash met working in IT in the Indian city of Hydrabad. They’re the first Asian couple to agree to be on One Born Every Minute. Akash says the normal Hindu way is for the father not to be present at the birth, but they’re eschewed tradition because they are modern and forward thinking.

Halinka is very outgoing and chatty. She says she wants every drug she can possibly have and is going to be demanding to the midwives . She and her husband Richard are like chalk and cheese they’re very funny and bicker constantly but what’s really special about Halinka is that she has a condition called ‘spontaneous labour’ whereby she quickly becomes fully dilated and gives birth very soon afterwards. She wants to try for a water birth this time but will it be serine? Trish McHale was run down by a car when she was 13 and suffers from a brain injury. She spent weeks in a coma and was left with memory loss and partial paralysis. Now she and her husband Steven are having their first baby. They met 20 years ago at a church they attended with their families. Trisha was the first to make the move and ask Steven out. They have been keen to be parents and have tried to get pregnant for a number of years. They have had one failed round of IVF, and Trisha has suffered two miscarriages at 12 weeks. This baby is biologically their own, but has been conceived through insemination that the couple have administered at home. Steven has taken on the role of carer and has to help Trisha with day to day practicalities such as washing and dressing as well as having a full time job in IT. He is able to work from home at times, but Trisha is often left to get on with things herself during the day, which gives her a degree of independence. Despite her physical limitations, Trisha is determined to be as hands on as a mother as she can be and wants to look after the baby herself at home. She knows she will need some help and will be devastated if the baby has to go to a nursery during the day when Steven is at work.

Giorgi-Leigh (17) says she was devastated when she found out she was pregnant. But she’s come to terms with it now. The father is Jack (18) her on-off boyfriend for years but Jack is in prison and he will miss the birth. Giorgi says Jack’s been in and out of prison ever since he was 11, for taking cars and joy-riding. In April 2011 he was out of jail for just 2 days before he was caught again and now he’s been sent down until Dec 2012. Giorgi says she’s not visiting him and will not be taking their daughter to see him in prison, but time will tell. Both Paul and Dawn Stanislowski Doyle have children from previous relationships, but this time around it just feels right. They met two years ago at work and married in May. Dawn never expected to find happiness again and certainly never expected to be having another child. It’s been a whirlwind two years: getting together with Paul, marriage and becoming pregnant. Dawn says Paul is completely different to her previous partners. She says he’s “independent “because she doesn’t have to look after him in the same way she did with the others. Paul is generous and thoughtful and she feels they are an equal partnership. Dawn is nervous about giving birth and feels like she is having her first child all over again. She says it feels like a lifetime ago since she had Jasmine and has forgotten how to “do anything”. She says she’s extremely emotional and fully expects to cry during delivery.

Charlotte Hoskins (26) is one of the maternity hospital’s very own midwives and she’s having her first baby. There’s excitement on the labour ward and her colleagues give her the red carpet treatment. Everyone wants the birth to go smoothly. Charlotte and husband James (29) have been together for nine years but they only married a year ago and she fell pregnant quickly. She’s very passionate about her job and wants her own birth experience to help her care more sensitively for women in childbirth. She’s planning to have a water birth because she feels they are so calm and natural. If not she wants a midwife led birth with as little intervention as possible. But even midwives have to follow the laws of nature. When she can’t have a water birth her plans come unstuck and she’s in for a more complicated labour. Julie Reid (35) is 10 years older than her partner Nick and she has two children from a previous relationship. Unsurprisingly she’s the one in the driving seat and says having a relationship with Nick is a bit like having another child. She didn’t want more children herself, but agreed to have just one more because Nick kept pestering her for a child of their own. Then she discovered she was expecting twins, which is not what she bargained for. Julie’s a real trooper and wants to have her twins naturally, although complications with multiple births can all too easily arise.

Hopes and fears about parenthood provide the theme to tonight’s One Born Every Minute. Sarah Sanderson (27) met her current partner Jamie (24) in a pub and challenged him to a drinking competition, which she won. He is a massive rugby fan and hopes they will be having a boy and has already bought the baby several Leeds Rhino replica outfits. He’s no idea how he’d bring up a girl “I’d have to play dominoes or dolls with her”. However the sex of the baby is unknown. Sarah’s pregnancy has been understandably stressful because the last time she was pregnant she delivered a stillborn baby at 22 weeks. She was told she’d never be able to carry a child to full term, and had come to an acceptance of life without children. But after feeling nauseous at work, one final pregnancy test gave her the good news she hadn't dared dream of. At the hospital midwives discover her baby is lying sideways (transverse) which is problematic for an easy natural birth. Her anxiety is increased even further when she beings to hemorrhage... Natalie (28) and her husband Anthony (32) are hairdressers and run a hair salon together. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea to live together and work together but they love it. They can’t wait to find out how much hair their baby has and dream of the day when they put their own son in the barber’s chair... Natalie isn’t anxious about childbirth herself, but her mother, Brenda, is because she once had a stillborn child herself. The fear associated with that experience hasn’t diminished with time, but she’s determined to be at her daughter’s bedside.

Two very different approaches to childbirth in tonight’s ‘One Born Every Minute’. Olga Kozlova doesn’t want her husband anywhere near her during labour whereas Vicky Thompson keeps her man close at hand. Olga (30) and Victor (37) are from Lithuania. She is glamorous and, even in labour, applies more make-up than many woman do on a Saturday night out! Her chosen birth partner is worried mum, Galina, who says her daughter is ‘a child, giving birth to a child’. Olga met husband Victor met through an internet dating site back home but now the couple live in Leeds. They have found a new homeland but are lost in translation. Neither Russian-speaking Olga nor mum understand English. Victor does but he’s been banished from the delivery room – he’s sent packing whenever he pokes his head around the door. This is a big problem because Olga refused to have an interpreter and therefore has almost no idea what the midwives are saying. Her mother’s Russian/English dictionary isn’t much help. By contrast, Vicky Thompson (25) met her partner Ben (25) in the nightclub where they both worked. He was a bouncer and she was a barmaid. It was love at first sight and she had his name tattooed on her wrist after two months of them being together (or… although it was love at first sight, it’s taken him three years to finish having her name tattooed on his back because it hurt so much!) They are both bubbly, chatty and seem to love being together. Tattoos are their common language. They use them to celebrate their love and commemorate the loss associated with an earlier miscarriage. If they have more children, the only worry is that Ben will run out of space for more tattoos on his torso.

Three sets of parents demonstrate that family bonds can be forged in wildly different circumstances. Vicki (32) and Janet (39) have been together for eleven years and tied the knot of civil partnership in 2007. Vicki was 21 when she left her boyfriend for a fling with Janet and they’ve been together ever since. Vicki’s always wanted children and they used IVF with Vicki’s eggs and donor sperm. At first Vicki’s mum found it difficult accepting her daughter was gay but now seems very comfortable with the idea and is on hand at the birth to help. That’s just as well as Vicki can be a handful at the best of times by her own admission. She doesn’t cope well with pain and requires an assortment of cold flannels, water sprays and fans to keep her from feeling too hot during labour. The most astonishing thing about Ines Newell (30) and Paul (60) is their age difference - he’s 30 years older than her. Their shared religious belief forms part of the bond that ties them together. They’ve now been together for seven years and this is their third child. Sheree (20) and Danny (19) have been together for 18 months. She got pregnant accidentally and he has given up the chance of going to college to study sport science and instead has taken a full-time job to pay for the baby’s upbringing.

The importance of strong family values is the theme running through this week’s One Born Every Minute. But the two families and their values are so very different. Mel (20) and James (21) want to prove they can be good parents themselves even though they both had a poor start in life. Mel had an unsettled childhood living in the care system from an early age, but her life turned around when she went to live with her foster mum, Jean, who has been a powerful and positive influence. Mel now regards Jean as her real ‘mum’ and wants her to be her birthing partner along with boyfriend James. James went off the rails as a youngster following the loss of his younger brother and has been to prison three times, but has stayed out of trouble for over a year and is determined to be a better person in future. Jean has had her doubts about James and reminds him of his responsibilities more than once during Mel’s labour. Leah (23) and Richard (27) are Mormons who met at church. They’ve been married for 4 years. Leah says at school other girls had dreams of becoming professionals - teachers, doctors or lawyers – whereas her sole ambition was always to be a mother because “family” is so important. They already a daughter called Faye who’s 18 months old, but this time they’re having a boy. Richard doesn’t say much except that he is adamant the baby should be called Richard. Richard’s father’s name was also Richard and he’s unshakable in the view that his boy should continue the family tradition even though Leah is not at all sure...

The stress and anxiety surrounding childbirth takes centre stage when two couples with difficult births come into the hospital. Billie Durrans (17) has pre-eclampsia, which is one of the most serious conditions that can develop in pregnancy caused by very high blood pressure. She’s having an emergency cesarean and the baby will be born ten weeks early with the complications associated with premature birth. Billie and her partner Ryan (20) have been together for 3 years and weren’t planning on starting a family. She wanted to have a career and thought that they’d both travel before settling down properly. Then she found out she was pregnant and their plans changed. Now they face weeks of visiting the hospital’s neo-natal unit as their baby gains weight and strength and overcomes breathing problems. Carolyn and John Sinclair are both dentists although they say they tend not to talk about teeth when they’re at home. A 20 week scan shows that their baby will be born with a cleft lip. Although they know the condition can be corrected with surgery, they’re understandably anxious to discover how serious their baby’s condition will appear when it’s born. For the midwives too, it’s a difficult time because they want the birth to be a happy event but know the couple are nervous about how they’ll react when the baby is delivered. Finally, Tanya (28) and Barry (30) are a young middle income couple having their first baby after just 5 months of being together. Barry is a joker but his smiles and laughter conceal his deep anxiety about the responsibility of being a father.

Linda Abbott has been a midwife all her life but her career is coming to an end. Aged 60 she’s retiring from her post. She’s held in high esteem by the other midwives, who refer to her deferentially as “Mrs” Abbott or “Sister”. She reminisces about the old days and remembers delivering several generations of some families. Meanwhile life goes on in the hospital… Michelle Willis (22) is resigned to being a single mum. The baby’s father made it clear he wanted to have nothing to do with the birth. She’s supported her mum, Maureen, who’s incredibly strong and her sister Mandy. Michelle is bright and bubbly and determined to be optimistic but when her mum and sister go home overnight she becomes tearful and the midwives have to comfort her. Sister Abbott finally delivers the baby amidst tender and emotional scenes that speak loudly about the strength of women. Lauren (35) and Kirk (28) fell in love at first sight. She left her native Canada in search of adventure and arrived at Heathrow on New Year’s Day 2005. She met Yorkshireman Kirk on January 2nd and they’ve been together ever since. They’ve been trying to have a child for the last five years and were about to start medical tests when Lauren became pregnant naturally.