Yesterday saw two babies being born that made two proudfooters proud uncles. Not content with this happy coincidence, Channel 4 decided to screen "One Born Every Minute" last night. Shot with discreet cameras in a Southampton labour ward, it was a great example of real people providing compelling stories. There was the odd cynical edit here and there (one in particular seemed to poke fun at a father-to-be as he told us his unimpressive GCSE results), but we got to see how people acted when confronted by what Anthropologists often call the 'boundaries' of humanity. Mothers hugged son-in-laws ("she's never hugged me like that unless she's pissed") and expectant mothers shouted "I hate you" at anyone who cared to listen. I watched with a lump in my throat as a mother (heavily drugged at this point), midwives and a 'rabbit caught in headlights' father stood quietly listening to the wavering rhythms of the child's heartbeat echoing around the small room, hoping it would pick up the pace. I was unaware of this aspect of sound design in hospitals where the whole room is filled with the amplified heartbeat of an unborn child, but there was an eery similarity to the final scene of Das Boot. Thanks to the experience and decisiveness of the NHS staff, this time there was a happier ending.
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