A new factual drama aired on Monday night as part of BBC Three’s ‘Defying the Label’ season. Don’t Take My Baby tells the story of a disabled couple’s struggle to keep their newborn baby. It is based on real life testimony and aims to “speak honestly” to “open-minded BBC Three viewers”, according to BBC Three controller Damian Kavanagh.
The story follows the journey of 21-year-old mother and wheelchair user, Anna, and father Tom, who is partially sighted, as they try to provide the care and attention their daughter needs. Their social worker, Belinda, must assess whether they can provide this care or if alternative arrangements are needed. The BBC website said “This emotional tale will call viewers’ prejudices and beliefs about the disabled community and society as a whole into question, as we learn about a situation many disabled couples find themselves in as new parents.”
The story will also provide viewers with an insight to the sort of difficult decisions facing social workers when they have to consider whether alternative care for children is the best option.
Don’t Take My Baby is the first of a series of brand 15 new programmes aimed at helping viewers to understand, sometimes in a brutally honest way, what it’s really like to be a young person with a disability in the UK today.
The BBC reports that reactions throughout the drama were positive with viewers commenting on the fair portrayal of how hard social work can be, and how well portrayed the unique difficulties for a social worker and the family in this situation were.
Don’t Take My Baby is now available on BBC iPlayer.
If you are looking for advice in relation to Social Services involvement with your family, please click here.