A series of seven programmes 1: The Birth of a Baby
Childbirth is still a traumatic and dramatic experience, but because of new drugs and techniques, fatalities are rare and there is no need for the mother to undergo any more pain than she chooses. Indeed childbirth can be painless.
But it is in the field of education for childbirth that the greatest advances have been made. Mothers-to-be and their husbands are taught what to expect, from their first visit to the gynaecologist until the actual moment of delivery. , Compiled and narrated by Tony Van den Bergh Producer ALAN BURGESS