One Born Every Minute

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.