Don't Drop the Baby, TV review: Can an experienced midwife "turn these bad lads into super dads"?

BBC3’s new show Don’t Drop the Baby (BBC)

Life was also about to change for ever for the fathers-to-be in BBC3's new show Don't Drop the Baby. Can an experienced midwife, to use the BBC3 parlance, "turn these bad lads into super dads"? Sigh. If only this six-part series was a mockumentary like Scotland in a Day. Unfortunately, the paternal ignorance on show was all too real.

Shane, 25, was expecting a son with his girlfriend, Lauren, and was alarmingly determined to play a key role in the delivery room. He didn't just want to be present at the birth; he didn't just intend to witness it from "the business end" (an experience Robbie Williams memorably compared to "watching my favourite pub burn down.")

Nor was Shane content to just cut the cord. This guy actually wanted to deliver the baby himself, with his own hands.

Had he not heard of these things called "medical professionals"? Apparently he had, but that only added to his fears about "bloke doctors running around" while his girlfriend was giving birth. "I wouldn't want another male seeing that," he reasoned.

Martyn, a 26-year-old chef, wasn't much better, although he did present a less immediate threat to the health of mother and baby. He'd thought very little about the birth of his baby, preferring to play X-Box while his girlfriend Holly quietly panicked about the prospect of enduring labour.

When the midwife asked him how Holly might cope with the pain, the best he could come up with was, "Dunno... cups of tea?" This programme certainly won't do the image of young dads any favours. Fathers4Justice should organise a boycott.