Yorkshire Midwives on Call (BBC Two) is absolutely lovely. It’s a documentary about – and you may be ahead of me here – midwives (specifically the team supporting home births) in Yorkshire (specifically in and around Bradford) on call. It is set in an idyllic world where you see the same midwife – or at the very least, a member of her team – throughout pregnancy and they attend the birth too. All is calm, the midwives are all caring, experienced professionals and the greatest stress in anyone’s life is the Bradford traffic.
Laura leads the team of about half a dozen midwives covering 120 square miles and about 160 pregnant women at any one time. They discuss home birthing plans in detail with each one, from playlists to possible interventions, to what happens to the afterbirth (Keeleigh, at 36 weeks, is clear – “I don’t want it in my wheelie bin”) and how to get an overdue labour going. Sex is one way because semen has prostaglandins in it that soften the cervix, says Gemma. “So go for it. If you feel like it. Lots of women at nine months pregnant don’t,” she adds. You’re better off with Michaela doing a sweep, to be honest (for the uninitiated this is the insertion of a determined finger into the cervix, which is then run round the base of the amniotic sac to send the message that time’s a-wasting). “Nobody can measure up to her hit rate,” says an admiring colleague. “She’s the best. We call her the supersweeper.” The midwives palpate bumps to check for problems, engagements and other signs that the convulsive day (or night) might be nigh. Then, of course, they attend the births and deliver the babies. For viewers and midwives alike it is a sight that never fails to take your breath away. “Every time I see a birth, I think women are incredible,” says Gemma. “Men aren’t bad either, but women are incredible.”
