Midwifery lecturer Dr Catherine Angell on BBC Radio Solent

By Dean Eastmond

Senior Lecturer in Midwifery at BU, Dr Catherine Angell, featured on BBC Radio Solent talking to presenter Katie Martin about midwifery and how a woman’s life changes in a variety of ways after having a baby.

Dr Angell explained what physically happens to a woman’s body during pregnancy – including ligaments softening and certain hormones being produced to help the pregnancy – before going on to talk about a woman’s life in the first few weeks of being a mother.

“It’s very much an emotional rollercoaster,” she said.

She continued by explaining what “the new normal” was in terms of childbirth for a busy woman’s life.

Dr Angell told BBC Radio Solent that it’s nice to see when family and friends help out new mothers in terms of practical jobs such as “taking out the washing, cooking meals and taking the children to school”

“I think we’ve moved a long way in terms of actually now regarding birth as a normal event so for most women it will be completely normal, but that doesn’t mean to say that it is an everyday event, and I think we sometimes we muddle the two things up”, Dr Catherine Angell explained.

“So actually we want women to think about it as a normal thing in their life but actually it’s exceptional, it’s a profound thing to happen to them, so you need to kind of sit back and wait for the physical and emotional changes to settle in.”

The interview also mentioned the “royal baby hype” and what life will be like for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for the first few weeks of baby George’s life.

Dr Angell said: “It’s still a really big emotional change for whoever you are and it comes with that sense of responsibility and that can be scary for many first time parents.”

Dean is a student at Budmouth College in Weymouth, who is working at Bournemouth University in the Press and PR Department. He joined BU on a Sir Samuel Mico Scholarship, which provides 10 students from his college with essential work experience for four weeks over the summer.

Liisa Rohumaa shares her fears for the Royal baby’s privacy on BBC Radio Solent

By Dean Eastmond

Bournemouth University’s Liisa Rohumaa, a Lecturer in Online Journalism, featured on BBC Radio Solent talking about the arrival of the Royal baby.

Liisa explained how the newly born Royal baby will not have the same privileges with privacy that his father once did.

“If you think of the two big scandalous royal stories of recent years involving Harry and Katherine, one in Las Vegas and the other one showing pictures of Katherine semi-nude.”, she added. “Both of those stories didn’t actually emerge from mainstream media; one was a foreign press agency via a magazine and the other was social media.”

Liisa explained that the lack of privacy the royal family may get will most likely be down to factors such as social media instead of the traditional, almost archaic ways with mainstream print media.

Amateur photography taken on phones and then uploaded onto social media websites (such as Twitter or Facebook) will be the main privacy issues with the family.

Liisa explains that the royal media managers will have “a really tricky situation”.

“The first few weeks will be at the Middletons’ in their house. William and Katherine are keen to have some family time together and that will be the very first test of the embargo on pictures or information coming out or photographers hiding in bushes and all of those sorts of horrible things that people think about when they think about paparazzi.”

Dean is a student at Budmouth College in Weymouth, who is working at Bournemouth University in the Press and PR Department. He joined BU on a Sir Samuel Mico Scholarship, which provides 10 students from his college with essential work experience for four weeks over the summer.