Episode 3

Vivienne Parry explores changing attitudes to giving birth and asks what is a normal birth. The programme looks at how birth became increasingly medicalised from the 1940s, but also examines the current push for more midwife led care and the resurgence of home births. We discuss the vast range of medical interventions which seem to have reduced mortality rates in childbirth, but ask have they also had a negative effect on the way birth is perceived ?