ANGRY student midwives have hit out at Channel 5's new documentary series Baby School claiming it is misleading and could frighten mothers-to-be unnecessarily.

The 22 first-year students, based at Talbot Grove, Bury, were so angry about the show they wrote to Channel 5 as a class to complain.

And they now want to reassure local women that they can expect better care than that shown in the "fly on the wall" documentary.

The students are on the three-year midwifery diploma course run by the University of Salford at the Bury Campus.

They say the programme showed disrespect for women in labour, and portrayed student midwives as "immature and insensitive".

Some local expectant mothers had been so horrified and upset by the first two episodes of Baby School they are now refusing to have student midwives near them.

The letter from the class said: "Documentary makers are becoming notorious for their creative and manipulative editing, often highlighting the most negative and shocking aspects of willing participants for the sake of 'good telly'." The Bury students also said the student midwives featured on the show are not in tune with midwifery.

Sally Wright, 21, of Crow Lane, Ramsbottom said it was unfortunate that the students featured seemed to be in the profession for all the wrong reasons.

She said: "There was too much playing up to the camera. In one scene in which a student is shown at her first delivery, she didn't even speak to the woman. But the whole idea of midwifery is to promote the bonding experience between the woman and midwife."

They stressed that midwifery is primarily concerned with the care of a woman during pregnancy and that only a small percentage of the time involves direct contact with an infant.

All of them felt the programme had been damaging to the midwifery profession, and many said they felt guilty about the way in which student midwives were portrayed. They had even found themselves apologising for the students on the programme.

The students on the Bury course ranged in age from 19 to 34, some had up to three children of their own, all were enthusiastic, serious and committed to midwifery. Each one spoke about the privileged nature of their role.

They wanted to reassure local women that they would not be receiving the "appalling" lack of care depicted by the makers of Baby School.

A Channel 5 spokesman defended the series saying programme makers believed the four student midwives portrayed were fairly representative of students and he added that there were also interviews with a number of very experienced midwives.

He stated that the programme contained a lot of very positive images.

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