I agree about the depiction of the nurse--I didn't think she seemed that bad, and she truly did seem to feel conflicted and well intentioned.
That said, I agree with everyone else here, too--I found the show to be incredibly upsetting. Not only in the condescending assumption that anyone who doesn't want meds must be crazy, but also in the seemingly callous treatment of the young woman who was afraid of a c-section. Despite her fears and her expressed desire to avoid an epidural because she was afraid it would slow her down, the staff seemed completely indifferent and dismissive of her concerns. The snide remark about the size of the baby's father was upsetting, as was the fact that, despite Tasha's clear fear and desires to avoid certain interventions, the nurses still made remarks about big babies and other things that it seemed would exacerbate her fear. On top of that, her family members didn't seem to be doing anything to support her emotionally or physically, when she was clearly having a hard time. It seemed to me that Tasha is someone who did have strong preferences for her birth, but lacked the support and information she needed. As a result, she was really flailing, and not once did they depict anyone offering her love and encouragement (except the baby's father during the c-section). Even after the c-section, all the attention immediately went to the baby, despite the obvious fact that the mother had just been through emotional and physical trauma, and could have used some love. It seemed like she was devalued and abandoned by everyone in the room. And I have to wonder how much of it was a race thing on the part of the staff.
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I'm due in April and I found myself starting to feel short of breath from anxiety watching the show. That said, my doula Jen is the one depicted on the show, and I am eager to get her perspective! Watching it has raised a lot of questions for me about what staff is really like (luckily, I'm not delivering at Riverside) and how common the natural birth couple's experience was. I'm looking forward to having Jen as a support person during my labor.
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Originally Posted by
happysmileyladyÂ
I dunno, maybe we weren't watching the same show or something. I saw that nurse Susan wasn't not being nearly as combative as the father was. I mean, he refused to allow her to check his wife, but it was ok for the midwife? It didn't seem like the issue was with being checked, but with nurse Susan being the one doing the checking...why? Now, I did see her comment about being dehydrated as kind of a sneaky implication that they should have given the momma an iv with fluids and I didn't like that. But, the father and the doula seemed to be giving the mamma water out of those big cups with the straws rather regularly, so I dunno. I did see that as weird. And the person who suggested the pit, that was the midwife, not nurse Susan.Â
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