A midwife has shared a number of secrets about life on a maternity ward, and one is particularly heartbreaking. No matter if you have given birth before, or it's your first time on a labour ward, they're a very vulnerable place to be.

Birth is very unpredictable with every one being different from the last. Some women will experience more pain than others, while others may even need to be rushed into emergency surgery out of nowhere.

But one thing you can count on is there being a team of dedicated and hardworking midwives there to help get you through every step of the way.

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Lara Basini-Millar, a midwife who appeared on One Born Every Minute, has shared five things the public don't know about maternity wards - with her admitting that one "breaks her heart".

She said "The labour room can go from calm to an emergency in seconds. One minute everybody's sitting around chatting and laughing and then all of a sudden there's 10 members of staff in the room trying to help, usually because the baby is showing signs of distress.

"This can be extremely traumatic and lots of women will pinpoint this moment for the cause of their birth trauma.

"Women apologise during labour. They may say sorry for swearing, sorry for not pushing well, sorry for taking too long and it absolutely breaks my heart because nobody should ever apologise for anything in labour."

Lara then admitted that partners are often even more panicked than labouring mum's. She continued: "Partners often panic more than mums. Usually I believe it's because the partner is the one that's almost an onlooker and therefore feels that there's nothing much they can do, whereas the woman's on the roller coaster and just riding the ride.

"The partner is watching and that must be really difficult when it's somebody you love and adore. Very easy for us [midwives] to be detached, to take a step back when it's not our loved ones."

Other mums commented on the video Lara posted on TikTok with their own experiences after giving birth.

One said: "Feeling empty inside as my organs start shifting combined with anxiety I thought I was dying."

A second added: "No one warned me about after birth contractions. They were rough."

A third said: "That first night in the hospital I was convinced I’d get “caught” doing anything with the baby. I changed a nappy so fast, like I wasn’t even supposed to be touching him and might get in trouble if someone walked in!"

Lara replied: "Those hormones make you feel so anxious and wired x totally relate to this."