One Born Every Minute

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.