Starting tonight on BBC Alba, a new Gaelic language series, "Mnathan-glùine (Midwives)", joins staff and mothers-to-be at Raigmore Hospital’s maternity ward and in the community. Three women closely involved with the production — two on screen and one behind the scenes — tellabout their experiences in making the programme
THE MIDWIFE
Etta MacKay, originally from Upper Bayble on the Isle of Lewis, has been a midwife at Raigmore for 28 years and trained at the Inverness hospital six years before starting work there. Etta has the reputation among her colleagues of being able to deliver anything — human or animal.
"The filming went very well actually. The staff got so used to it that after a wee while they just carried on as normal. They were very unobtrusive, the filming crew, and they became part of the furniture.
The mums were all right with it too. The filming only took place if the women were comfortable with it, and if they weren’t the crew respected that and they stopped filming. They were superb in the way they handled the filming. It’s a sensitive area of the health service and we have to take cognizance of that and deal with it appropriately.
I just hope it will show the good work that is going on at Raigmore because it is a fabulous unit to work in and it’s a fabulous unit to have your baby in, with very skilled staff. There’s not much turnover of staff because it is the only hospital in the area, so staff when they become midwives stay there a long time and quite a few have been there as long as me.
I’m hoping it will give a positive impression of what goes on at Raigmore. A lot of what you hear is very negative, but we don’t have that negativity here in the Highlands. We have a very cohesive working group and the staff are superb.
I think it will be good for expectant mums and fathers to see it so as to know what to expect and I think it will be good for mums and fathers who have had babies to see it. It will bring back memories for them and they will be able to relate to it.
I think it will work well towards training and I think it will be good advertising for Raigmore too.
We have quite a lot of staff who are Gaelic speakers and a lot of them were used in the filming. There are some people who come in who speak Gaelic and I do speak in Gaelic to the women and the babies, but there’s not a desperate need for it in Inverness, but now coming in are the generation of children who went through Gaelic medium education.I don’t know if I’ll even watch the programme though! I don’t like seeing myself on the telly or hearing myself on the radio — but I might have a wee sneaky peak."
THE MOTHER
Catherine Ann Mackinnon, who lives in the Raigmore area of Inverness with husband John and their children Somhairle Neil and Martha Mairead, was followed by the film-makers throughout her pregnancy. Though from a Gaelic speaking family in Skye, Catherine Ann is not a native speaker, but took on the challenge of not only being filmed from her first scan to delivery, but relating her experiences in Gaelic.
"Mairead sent round an e-mail to as many people as she could think of. My friend saw it and knew I spoke some Gaelic and it turned out that my pregnancy fitted the timescale of the programme perfectly. It was something different and I like doing different things.I’m not fluent in Gaelic at all, I’m a learner, but I love it and doing the programme has encouraged me to study more. I didn’t want to speak English if I could possibly help it and basically tried to speak Gaelic throughout — but I might sound repetitive some of the time unless the editing is really good! Being honest, if it had been my first pregnancy, I wouldn’t have gone for it at all. You have enough other things going on the first time, but I didn’t find the filming intrusive at all. Part of the reason for that is Mairead, the producer, is such a lovely person and she made it feel so easy. Jane, the camera woman, was superb too. Seeing it from a woman’s point of view, they had a real understanding of what it is like to be heavily pregnant as time went on. They were both quite emotional at the end when Martha was born
Mairead always said to just say no if I didn’t want to do it any more. I still managed to speak Gaelic, though, even if I sound like I’d had half a bottle of whisky because I’m so exhausted!
My first child was a section and that was in the back of my mind, but it didn’t affect the filming. I was determined to go for a natural birth, but in the end it wasn’t to be. I won’t say it’s a great experience having a section, because it isn’t, but in the end the main thing is that my children were born fit and healthy."
THE DIRECTOR
Terry Wolsey, director of Aberdeen-based Eyeline Media, first approached Raigmore with the idea of the programme.
"We deliberately used a small all-female crew.
It was a softly-softly approach. Normally when we are filming we have lights and cables and more than two people, so there were huge expectations on the shoulders of the producer and director and they did very well.
People will be aware of a much bigger programme, "One Born Every Minute", on Channel 4, which is a very big operation with many television crews embedded. Our show is very small and intimate. You feel you are in the labour suite sharing that experience.
It’s a very privileged moment when a baby is born and we, as viewers, are delighted to be able to share that moment.
Without their co-operation the series would never have gone ahead, so our thanks go out to them, but it’s also nice for them to have this special moment recorded for them to look back on. The programme is going to be used as a teaching tool at the University of Stirling’s Raigmore campus, and we’re delighted with that too.
We have a balance of different deliveries featured, including normal and Caesarean, but one of the programmes features what happens when things don’t go well and one mum very bravely tells her story of what happens when you give birth to a still born child. There will be a helpline number to call at the end of that, but the series as a whole is very upbeat.
It’s also interesting as a Gaelic series. What’s good for viewers, whether Gaelic speakers or not, is seeing Gaelic spoken in a work context. Gaelic’s not a language that is just spoken after work or after school.
When they watch it at home though, I would like the viewers to feel they have experienced a very special moment. We’d like them to feel more informed, but also to admire the tremendous professionalism of the midwives at Raigmore. I don’t think that’s something that’s always appreciated."
