A Baby Story

[lemonapple]

Alright, so I actually saw 3 episodes of this show for the first time yesterday, and I was utterly appalled!!! I had heard that it was a pretty awful show, but omg, are these women mindless or something?!

I watched one episode where the woman managed a natural labor, and the narrator made it sound as though she had gone through the most unthinkable agony ever! I watched another, where one woman decided to be induced at 39 weeks and then was shocked when she wound up with a c-section due to a failed induction! My poor hubby...I got so wound up about the show that I couldn't stop talking birth-speak for quite a while after. :-)

So, I guess it isn't even the show that gets me, it's the total lack of education these women have about the choices they will face in childbirth. I can't imagine ever going through a pregnancy where I didn't research every little thing my doctor or midwife told me along the way BEFORE I trusted their suggestions. I mean, do these women think at all about their birth before going into labor?

[Ldavis24]

unfortunately that show loves to focus on the dramatic, much like most media things related to birth...I too get extremely worked up when I watch...

I have always noticed that most of the birth's are filmed in Jersey or New York, where I am assuming they have very high C-section rates anyway...Natural births are just boring and not exciting I guess...

DH laughs at me when I watch it because I spend have the time yelling at the tv, which is probably why I don't really watch it all that much anymore!

[pinksprklybarefoot]

During my first pregnancy, my MW told me to absolutely avoid that show!

Aside from the fact that they don't show very many natural births, it is always edited in the way that things will seem the most dramatic.

[meganmarie]

Yes New Jersey's c-section rate is the highest in the country. We have hospitals here with rates at or above 50%. Its so horrifying I can't even think about it. And yes, I feel the same way about A Baby Story.

[Quindin]

The Baby a Story people owe me a remote: I threw our old one on the floorout of frustration whilst watching the show once. :

It is a horrid show

[HisBeautifulWife]

I don't watch that show because I don't enjoy watching women in labor. I much more prefer Bringing Home Baby because they focus on the before and after; not during.

[amandaleigh37]

Yes it's a horrible show...
We don't have TV but at a friend's house last week I saw one called "Amazing babies" or something like that. SO dramatic.. about babies being born in cars and one on a helicopter. For that one, there was *gasp* nothing to clamp the cord with so they had to wait until they landed.... the narrator and music made it sound like mom & baby were hanging on the edge of a certain death - of course they were perfectly fine.

[Ldavis24]

I was watching I didn't know I was pregnant last night and after they do the re-enactment of the women giving birth on her living room floor the narrator says,
"she didn't have prenatal care and she gave birth without an epidural or any pain relief!" He says this in a tone of voice, like wow isn't it amazing that she didn't die without an epidural because women simply cannot birth without being pumped full of drugs!
Wonderful show..Thats another one where I keep shaking my head and think to myself what is wrong with these women. Especially the ones who have had children before!

[ursusarctos]

Originally Posted by amandaleigh37

For that one, there was *gasp* nothing to clamp the cord with so they had to wait until they landed.... the narrator and music made it sound like mom & baby were hanging on the edge of a certain death - of course they were perfectly fine.

Oh, but didn't you know that if the cord is not clamped then the placenta will drain all the blood from the baby and take on a life of its own? :Puke

Originally Posted by Ldavis24

I was watching I didn't know I was pregnant last night and after they do the re-enactment of the women giving birth on her living room floor the narrator says,
"she didn't have prenatal care and she gave birth without an epidural or any pain relief!" He says this in a tone of voice, like wow isn't it amazing that she didn't die without an epidural because women simply cannot birth without being pumped full of drugs!

Sigh. I have never seen any of these shows and do not intend to unless I'm in the mood for some righteous rage. Birth as portrayed in every movie and tv show otherwise is bad enough. And we wonder why the general public thinks birth is some kind of medical emergency...

[monkaha]

If you think that one's bad, stay away from Deliver Me. :

[Ldavis24]

Originally Posted by monkaha

If you think that one's bad, stay away from Deliver Me. :

I think the name pretty much says it all and I have never even heard of it before!

[kitkat5505]

I never watch those shows anymore cuz they just annoy me. It makes DH laugh when I get all worked up. Sadly those were my favorite shows when I was pg with #1 because I was just like most of those women. Birth was something that happened to me, not something I was an active participant of.

[dosergirl]

Haha I was watching "i didn't know i was pregnant" last night in bed. i had to turn it off cause i couldn't take it any more. i mean, firstly, if you didn't even know you were pregnant, i wonder how you are going to be responsible with your child when you can't even realize there is a person growing inside of you!

and yeah it is so dramatic, they give birth at home! no doctors! omg!
they have sound bites saying things like "i thought it was her intestine!)

[Belle]

What gets me is not how bad the show is (and it is bad), but that women watch it and consider it to be their prenatal classes. I don't know how many times I've heard "I just don't have any time for birth classes but DVRed a few episodes of A Baby Story so I'm pretty educated about birth."

I'm not allowed to watch that show. My dh tells me for my own health I can't watch it. (He's right, my blood pressure goes through the roof when I watch it)

Deliver Me is worse. I saw a few episodes of it when it first came out and its now on the same list as A baby Story.

[ursusarctos]

Ok I just watched an episode of Baby Story (hey, it's B.S.! ) and I am SPEECHLESS! Just, ARGH! That woman's birth was ROBBED from her! I can't think of any other way to put it. She was duped! She doesn't know it, and the doctors and nurses did everything in their power to keep her from finding out. And it was even a textbook birth, nothing special.
And why on earth does everyone refer to pitocin and epidural as "medicine"?!?

[jecombs]

Originally Posted by Belle

What gets me is not how bad the show is (and it is bad), but that women watch it and consider it to be their prenatal classes. I don't know how many times I've heard "I just don't have any time for birth classes but DVRed a few episodes of A Baby Story so I'm pretty educated about birth."

Are you serious??? I don't know whether to laugh or cry about those women...

Yes, I hate BS too. Occassionally they will show a water birth or someone who "tries" to have a natural birth, but it is very, very rare.

[Quindin]

You know what the saddest part is?
Not only have these women had their births robbed from them, they truly believed the people who did it saved their lives and the baby's by stepping in.

[Say]

That show makes me so upset!!! It doesn't help that it's on in the afternoon and it's one of the few English channels we get and I'm so often nursing on the sofa. I tell myself not to click my way there, but some days I just can't help myself. It's like the scene of an accident. I get so angry at some of the CNMs too. I saw a woman arrive at the hospital with a tens machine at 5cm - she was doing so well! Then the CNM started saying, 'we can get you pain relief. Why not try the epidural.' And then she had the epidural. And then she needed pitocin. And then they threatened her with a c-section and said the baby was big/pelvis too small. Finally, she was pushing, and the doctor said he was going to use forceps and might preform an episiotomy and she started crying. During the narrative parts when she recounted the birth, her voice was so dead and so sad.

Grrrr!

That Bringing Home Baby show isn't much better. I don't know how many times they've made 'breastfeeding troubles' the drama for the episode - and so often these babies come home with pacifiers in their mouths, and are literally, going to the breast with the pacifier in their mouth! (This is not to dismiss the real troubles so many women have - I just don't understand why babies have pacifiers jammed in their mouths when they have not established breastfeeding yet.)

/end rant

[felix23]

Originally Posted by monkaha

If you think that one's bad, stay away from Deliver Me. :

I like Deliver Me because it is for high risk pregnancies. That show is about women who need and want lots of medical interventions (kind of like me, that 's why I like it).

[channelofpeace]

Originally Posted by lemonapple

Alright, so I actually saw 3 episodes of this show for the first time yesterday, and I was utterly appalled!!! I had heard that it was a pretty awful show, but omg, are these women mindless or something?!

So, I guess it isn't even the show that gets me, it's the total lack of education these women have about the choices they will face in childbirth. I can't imagine ever going through a pregnancy where I didn't research every little thing my doctor or midwife told me along the way BEFORE I trusted their suggestions. I mean, do these women think at all about their birth before going into labor?

To be fair, and I am all for taking personal responsibility for one's choices, but I think this is an unfair assessment. It is one thing to know that one has choices and that there are alternatives to the mainstream way of doing things, but most women *don't* know that. Or they believe that the mainstream way of doing things genuinely is safer.

I mean, when your cultural conditioning has only ever indicated that birth is a dangerous and that if you just listen to your doctor they will get you through it alive and with a healthy baby, how would you know to seek an alternative? Why would you question your doctor's judgment when supposedly they are the "expert"? Most women in American culture are taught from very early on that "doctor knows best" and this seems to go doubly in birth.

So I wouldn't be so down on women not taking responsibility for their own births. Are there women who are too lazy or just don't care and so hand it over to their doctor? Sure, but I would wager that they are the minority- most just don't know better. It is the obstetrical system that has let women down. They touted how it was safer to birth in the hospitals and led a smear campaign against midwives. They still practice defensive medicine and even though I truly believe a lot of doctor's hearts in the right place, they are a product of their teaching. Rightly or wrongly, policy is now dictated by what is least likely to get a doctor or the hospital sued, not about what is best for the mothers or the babies.

Mothers can only choose if they know they have choices. Blaming them for being ignorant helps no one.