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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
Entertainment
Sophie McLaughlin

Belfast Midwives: Meet one of the health workers appearing on the new Channel 4 show

Meet one of the Northern Irish midwives showing what life is like behind the scenes at one of the country's busiest maternity units on as part of a new TV series.

Belfast Midwives follows the characterful team of midwives at the award-winning Royal Jubilee Maternity Service which delivers 5,000 babies every year.

Aimee Cavan is one of the midwives to feature on the first episode of the series which airs on Channel 4 on Tuesday, January 3 at 10pm.

Read more: New TV series takes viewers behind the scenes at Belfast maternity ward

She is called into action when parents Ashley and Kyle arrive to have their baby, with Ashley determined to have a waterbirth and Kyle hoping for a boy.

The 32-year-old midwife has been working for over eight years after carrying out her training at Queen's University Belfast in 2011.

Speaking to Belfast Live, Aimee shared how she never expected to see herself on the small screen but was excited that Channel 4 has chosen Belfast as the focus of their new show.

Aimee said: "I would probably describe myself as a little bit more of an introvert so it wasn’t something I would be totally used to but it just so happened that I was on shift when Ashley came in in labour.

"I know that it was something that she really wanted for her birth so I just kind of went along with it and fell into it rather than volunteering myself.

"You just get a little snapshot of the birth story but that footage is filmed over the space of many seven or eight hours - initially, I was aware that the camera was there but as time went on, the camera is not your focus.

"The woman and her family are your focus so by the end of it, I think I was almost totally unaware that they were still there."

Aimee's passion and dedication to her career came out of one of the most difficult periods of her life - the unexpected death of her son when he was only a baby.

"When I was just finishing school, I had fallen pregnant when I was 17 and stayed on at school and did my A-Levels and then went on to give birth a week later after I’d finished.

"I gave birth to this lovely little boy and brought him home and everything was just perfect. Things kind of escalated quite quickly in that I found out that he was quite sick - he had been born with a heart condition.

"When we picked it up, he was very unwell with it but he did have surgery but unfortunately, he was just too weak to recover to from that and he passed away," she explained.

"For me, it’s probably the worst thing that I have ever had to go through in life and it’s something that I would never wish on anyone else so I went that way with it in that I thought if I could do something personally to try and make sure nobody else felt this way ever, then it was turning it into a positive.

"He definitely is my daily motivation when I go to work to try and do a really good job and provide good and safe care for women and get them the experience that they want but also to be able to take home their well baby."

She is looking forward to viewers being able to get a glimpse into the mechanics of the health service here in Northern Ireland and show off the important work being carried out at the Royal Jubilee Maternity Unit every day.

Aimee continued: "One of the lovely things about Belfast is that we are becoming a more and more diverse little country - they always talk about six degrees of separation whereas, in Northern Ireland, it’s more like two.

"We’re this tiny, tiny little country but I think we have so much to give and I think as a general population, we are quite friendly and we love a bit of craic and having a laugh and I hope that this comes across in the show.

"We have such a range of religions, ethnicities and backgrounds and I think we are becoming a bit more inclusive and it’s really lovely."

Royal-Jubilee Maternity Service (Jonathan Porter/Presseye)

"It makes me laugh because I wonder will they have to put up subtitles for us because we all talk so quickly," she added.

Her advice to anyone considering a career in midwifery after watching the show is to follow their heart as it is such a rewarding path to go down.

She said: "While my own journey started with heartbreak and lead me down this path, it has brought so much joy to my life.

"So many lovely things have come out of this and I just think you’ll never make your millions being a midwife but you will be rewarded in so many different ways - it is just such a wonderful career."

Belfast Midwives begins on Channel 4 on Tuesday, January 3 at 10pm.

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