BEFORE giving birth to her first child, Sheona Beaumont avoided
watching One Born Every Minute, deeming it to be "too raw,
too real".
By the time she was pregnant with her second child, she was
ready not only to watch the programme, which documents births in
close detail, but to participate in it. Furthermore, she is
planning to use the reaction to the episode to create a piece of
artwork.
Mrs Beaumont, an artist, who is married to the Revd Adam
Beaumont, Assistant Curate of Holy Trinity, Westbury-on-Trym,
Bristol, has been commissioned to contribute to the Birth
Online: Birth Offline art project, which will explore
perspectives on public birth. It will form part of the Birth Rites
Collection, on permanent public display at the University of
Salford and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
in London.
She plans to produce two lenticular prints - printed images
which create the illusion of 3D or animation (below). One
will depict herself in labour, based on screenshots from her
appearance on One Born Every Minute. The other will
combine text and images conveying reaction to the episode, probably
including tweets.
On Tuesday, she said that the producers of the show had
focused on her Christian faith, including a visit from the hospital
chaplain, who read Psalm 62 after she had given birth. She spoke of
her desire to see the Church play a greater part in marking and
celebrating birth.
"I really remember feeling after my first child's birth that
women are massive achievers in going through childbirth and labour,
and the celebration that should surround them in that is something
that the Church can take up and give voice to," she said. She had
found a Church Times article about churching (Features, 30 March,
2012) "really inspiring. I always felt really strongly that it
is bit of a loss in the Church of England that we do not hold it up
in the same way as weddings and funerals."
The episode of One Born Every Minute in which Mrs
Beaumont features will be screened on Monday on Channel 4 at 9 p.m.
Contributions can be made to her artwork by tweeting #OneBorn and
#Birth_rites.