Jaime Winstone narrates seven hour-long instalments in which community midwives ambush expectant women whose lifestyles breach every guideline in the antenatal handbook. Each episode assembles up to three cases—bar owner Juliet knocking back four bottles of wine daily, 20-a-day smoker Heather refusing to quit for baby number two, teenager Natalie living on toast to stay thin while carrying twins—and films the midwives imposing urine tests, carbon-monoxide readings and food diaries as ultimatums. The camera sticks to a single-camera vérité style, lingering on ashtray close-ups and takeaway wrappers while the women defend their choices to families who can’t hide their disgust.
The format pivots on confrontation, not care. Midwife Lisa returns in the final episode to measure who stayed clean, who slipped, and which newborns paid the price, turning private prenatal anxiety into public moral spectacle. The series aired between 14 April and 10 June 2011 on BBC Three, a slot that targeted the channel’s core 16-34 demographic with a cocktail of medical scare tactics and reality-TV shame. Producer-director Martha Constable keeps narration brisk, stats stark, and outcomes blunt: some babies arrive underweight, some mothers relapse within weeks, no one leaves transformed.
Production Details
BBC Three / 7 Episodes / 2011
Producer(s): Martha Constable
Main Cast
