New One Born Every Minute series to film in Manchester

A new series of Bafta-award winning documentary One Born Every Minute is to be filmed in Manchester.

The show, originally aired on Channel 4, will be filmed at St Mary's Hospital later this year and shown on E4, a spokesperson for the channel said.

Fixed-rig cameras will be used "to follow the raw, emotional, and sometimes unpredictable moments experienced by expectant families and the medical teams who support them" over a 12-part series.

Vivienne Molokwu, E4 senior commissioning editor, said that, approaching 10 years on from the last series, she was looking forward to showing viewers "how the digital age has reshaped how families navigate this stage of life".

So much around pregnancy and maternity care had also changed since the series last aired, Will Rowson, co-creative director at Dragonfly TV, tasked with producing the show, added.

The series, which has featured hundreds of babies being born on camera, has also previously filmed at another north-west England hospital - Liverpool Women's Hospital.

Families have to apply to Dragonfly TV and give their consent to take part in the show if selected.

The BBC understands filming will only take place at St Mary's Hospital and not at its other sites at North Manchester General Hospital in Crumpsall or Wythenshawe Hospital.

It will not be the first time that documentary cameras have been allowed to go behind the scenes at the hospital, with staff at St Mary's previously the subject of six-part BBC series The Midwives in 2012.

Each year, staff at St Mary's delivers more than 13,000 babies, as well as supporting 120,000 outpatient and antenatal appointments and providing intensive care for 2,600 sick newborn babies, the hospital said on its website.

It was originally set up by Dr Charles White as a charity in 1790, when it was based in a house in Old Bridge Street, Salford.

The hospital has moved to several sites over its long history, settling at a brand new site on Oxford Road in 2009, alongside the other Manchester University Hospitals.

Kimberley Salmon-Jamieson, chief nursing officer at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, which runs St Mary's Hospital, said: "We are delighted that Saint Mary's Oxford Road, in the heart of Manchester, has been chosen as the new home of One Born Every Minute.

"It's been nearly 10 years since the original series ended, so we'll be telling the story of how maternity care has developed in that time, including the use of cutting-edge digital technology and research.

"Our maternity teams have made significant improvements to our service in recent years, working closely with women and their families."

She added: "One thing that hasn't changed is how proud we are of our incredible colleagues.

"We hope that the series will celebrate the everyday miracles they deliver for families as part of the largest maternity service in the country."

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