One Born Every Minute series 12 returns to E4 with a focus on parents
One Born Every Minute returns for a 12th series on E4 from Sunday at 9pm, filmed at St Mary's hospital in Manchester. The new series shifts the focus away from medical staff and towards the parents themselves.
One Born Every Minute series 12 returns to E4 with a focus on parents
A changed format
One Born Every Minute first aired in 2010 as a fly-on-the-wall look at life in a maternity unit, and viewers took to it immediately. That Bafta-winning first run ended in 2018, and the childbirth documentary is now back for a 12th series, airing on E4 from Sunday at 9pm.
The reboot looks different from what came before. Where medical staff were the prominent characters across the previous 11 series, this one centres on the parents. It is made for Channel 4 by Dragonfly, with Will Rowson serving as executive producer.
The series is set in St Mary's hospital in Manchester, which specialises in maternity care, and it follows more complicated pregnancies and surgical procedures than before.
What the first episode covers
The opening episode deals with some of the harder sides of pregnancy and birth. It covers caesarean births, noting that these have doubled over the past decade, alongside health anxiety and pregnancy loss.
- Caesarean births, which the programme notes have doubled over the past decade
- Health anxiety during pregnancy
- Pregnancy loss
The parents on screen
Among the parents featured is Faye, an NHS clinical lead who gives birth by C-section on the show. She wanted viewers to see what is going on in the background, and how much hard work people do behind the scenes.
Her path to the delivery room was a difficult one. After multiple miscarriages, she believed she would not have children, until a surprise pregnancy at the age of 38. She has said the miscarriages fed into the breakdown of her former marriage. She told her partner Will that if she experienced it again, she thought she would be broken.
Watching the footage back, she said, changed her memory of the birth.
"when I've seen it back, I'm in really safe hands, and I got to see my little boy being born"
The series also follows Peace, who wanted to showcase the experience of having twins, from concerns over their growth to the decision to have a C-section. She started watching the show as a child. "I love seeing normal women with normal bodies having normal pregnancies," she said.
Peace initially did not want to take part, because miscarriage felt like a taboo topic and, in her words, you blame yourself. Her partner, Kwamdeen, felt the episode would be a great memento to show their children.
How the series was cast
Rowson attributed the wider range of participants to a broader approach to casting, a move away on television from what he called eclectic, whimsical scenes, and, in part, a tighter budget. He also suggested that people now expect to share their experiences, calling it a generational thing.
Witnessing the births left its mark on him.
"It's an extraordinary thing to witness, you go 'oh my goodness, I can't believe I get to see that'."
Casting director Nsofwa Nwannadi said some participants applied to be on the show directly, while many responded to communications sent out by the hospital. Her team sought diversity by engaging with minority ethnic, LGBT and disability communities.
Unlike reality TV, she said, this is real life, and the production is reflecting what is actually there at the hospital.
The casting has brought in a broad spread of experiences: fathers reflecting on fatherhood and modern masculinity, mothers expressing fears about sublimating their identities to motherhood, and birthing partners who chose to remain child-free.
For Nwannadi, the openness of participants moved her. Those who had faced challenges, she said, wanted people to understand that they are not alone, that it is not stigmatised and that it is not their fault.
One Born Every Minute airs on E4 from Sunday at 9pm.
