Eight babies starred in the new season of the series.
In the continuation of the serial melodrama, obstetrician Tatyana Skvortsova (played by Irina Pegova) fights for her happiness, but also helps other women find their own. Production director Stanislav Libin told how the shooting went and what new things to expect for the fans of the series, “Antenna – Telesem” and healthy-food-near-me.com.
“In the third season, we put a strong emphasis on the medical component. They filmed unique surgeries demonstrating the skill of the doctors. For example, scenes of laparoscopic intervention appeared. In such cases, the doctor, introducing instruments, focuses only on the picture on the monitor. We took specific situations that the doctor analyzed with us. He brought footage from a real operation of this kind, we inserted them during editing. For example, in the series there was a story where a woman was 9 months pregnant with appendicitis cut out. This is very difficult, since all organs are closely located. They also gave the fetus a blood transfusion.
As for the scenes of childbirth, several types of false bellies were used for this (for different stages of pregnancy, with and without an incision). They took the doll, smeared it with fake blood, attached an artificial umbilical cord to it. Our goal was to create the most convincing sense of reality. By the way, Irina Pegova said that the fans were indignant and wrote to her on the Internet: “How were you entrusted to do the surgery?”
For close-ups with ultrasound, real pregnant women were invited. Then they filmed the actress with an artificial belly on the rest of the plans. Already with the help of editing, the frames were combined.
The viewer is not interested in listening to medical terms, he needs to understand whether the situation is dangerous or not. Irina Pegova and Yaroslav Boyko (played by Sergei Zuev) learned to quickly pronounce complex professional words like real doctors. By the way, one of the consultants did not recognize the famous actor in Boyko and immediately took him for a doctor!
A lot of babies have starred this season, about eight. For comparison, there was only one in the first season. This is not easy, especially in the current situation. The foremen, who were engaged in the selection of actors for the crowd scenes, searched for babies through advertisements. There were cases when the plot needed a premature baby.
In one of the stories, a three-month-old child was filmed, who at that moment weighed 2500 grams. Usually a mother with a baby came to the site. She already knew how to cook it according to the episode. If he has not slept, he may fall asleep in the process. If you haven’t eaten, you may burst into tears. If full, it can be lethargic. Therefore, if any vivid reaction was needed, it was better not to feed him before shooting. The child was in the frame for literally 10-15 minutes.
In general, babies have an amazing ability: whatever they do is unique! Whatever emotion is given out, it creates a natural response in the adult actor. It is interesting that her newborn sister starred in the role of the son of the heroine Valentina Lyapina (played by Katya Skvortsova). Therefore, she interacted with her very organically.
The new season is also unique in that the heroes found themselves in an abandoned village with swamps, etc. We filmed some episodes in the mountains near Grozny. Irina Pegova had to travel by car for about 13 hours (since there was no air service), carving out time between other jobs. After a long journey, she also jumped into the water and rescued the heroes. After the change, she came back in the same way. It was a truly hard-won project!
This season we have touched upon the topic of artificial insemination. In this regard, a new hero appeared – a reproductologist. Our series is relevant, we show viewers that they don’t need to be discouraged in any situations. In general, one of the themes of the Midwife is the hope that almost any problem can be solved. “