the "friends" baby is coming!

[Elphaba]

i just watched a snippet of tonight's episode, and i was pretty excited.
last week, rachel was 8 days past her due date, and there was no mention made of inducing or sectioning! how many real life doctors would be so calm at 41 weeks?
and the preview i saw had rachel at 3 cm after 17 hours of labor, and the doctor saying that she was progressing fine, just slowly! i'm in shock.
if only real laboring women were given such lenient time constraints.

[CanOBeans]

Waaaah! Someone please post after the episode and tell what happens! I read a spoiler for it and I hope it was correct about one aspect of the birth. And the spoilers don't go into what the final cliffhanger scene is -- I wanna know and I can't wait a year for it to make it to France!

[Elphaba]

alrighty canobeans, here's your spoiler!!!!!

rachel's baby was breech, but she still got to have a vaginal birth. that was shocking enough for me. she was in labor for like 2 days.

janis, chandler's ex, was one of 5 women who shared the labor room and gave birth before rachel.

ross' mom gave him her mother's engagement ring and told him to marry rachel.

joey finds the ring when it falls from ross' jacket. he happens to be on his knee....

rachel says yes. even though he didn't technically ask anything.

ross is on his way to PROBABLY propose to rachel as this happens.

end of season. sh*$.

oh, they named the baby emma and chandler and monica are TTC.

[gauge14iv]

Overall, I thought they did a better job than most sitcom births -

She was semi sitting instead of laying flat - and even had her feet in the air

Vag delivery with long labor despite breech position (which I am assuming would make for a c-sec in many cases)

She did not breast feed, however she didnt bottle feed either

All I have to say is Ross and Rachel better get it together - they have a daughter to raise!!! And EMMA! What a cute name. Rachel and Joey? I jus don't see it, Ross will walk in and figure it out and propose and they will get married...

Ok - so now Im gushing - Friends is the ONLY show I watch aside from trading spACES

They ran a commercial for the 3d ultrasound during the show - I started crying when that commercial came on!!! OH MY GOD!!! Ya know, for some people that US could be something really cool...Not that I am an advocate of unecessary US or even some that are questionable, but I know that for DH - after having had 8 pregnancy losses with his ex-wife - it would have been a big deal for him to see that DS was really ok in there and he just never could get the idea on the standard US. I actually gasped when I saw the commercial - it took my breath away!!!!

[Wildflower]

I watched! I liked her woman doc. And that sweet moment when her and Ross kiss right after the birth, and how Rachel is so weepy and in love with her baby. I cried a big alligator tear when I saw the baby--it amazes me how I cry so easily when any kind of birth is shown, since dd....sigh...I hope her and Ross make it. Phoebe is once again wise in her own flacky way...

[CanOBeans]

OK, I've got to see that episode! Thank you, shoshanna's mom! The spoilers I read ahead of time did mention the breech birth -- that alone is so cool. But yoicks, they will drag that engagement ring/marriage confusion out well into the next season, don't you think? I am such a geek-- I really want to see Ross and Rachel together.

[Viola]

I thought the show wasn't all that great, although I did think it was funny that Janice showed up.

I know it's tv and I just have to suspend disbelief, but I can't believe that any hospital birth would just *happen* to work out that way anywhere in the country. If it was that easy to have a non-intervention hospital birth then maybe they wouldn't be so bad. No monitors of any kind, no IV, catheters, drugs, what have you but they didnt' show her walking around at all or doing any other kind of pain management techniques, she got to 10 cm dilated without going through transition labor, and she had a surprise vaginal breech birth. OK, OK, I know Phoebe's triplet delivery wasn't very realistic either.
The Joey with the ring thing at the end really ticked me off. I wish they'd quit messing around with this whole Ross and Rachel getting together thing--they've been doing it all darn year!

[boobybooby]

I suspect that the birth was so low-key so they could avoid all of US from e-mailing them

I did like the birth, I was impressed that there were only 2 people in the room the Dr. and one nurse. It was great that they showed a breech vaginal delivery! Who knows maybe there will be some woman somewhere who demands a breech vag. cuz she saw it on Friends! And did you notice that after 17 hours the nurse sho checked her said "we are moving along, just slowly, so eveything's fine". Wow, at 17 hours the Doc is usually talking about a possible section if things don't speed up soon! She was in labor like 42 hours and still got a vag delivery so that's nice.

Also the Doc and nurse weren't wearing hair covers and masks, AND they were actually nice to Rachel. They also gave her the baby without showing anything else done to the baby, but wrapping her quickly in a blanket. Too bad they didn't show breastfeeding, and I was a little bummed that they showed the nursery filled with newborns.

But all in all it was a huge step in the right direction for TV births. It's good for people to start seeing a more natural approach on TV, so many people watch Friends and I think the more women get exposed to this approach on TV, the more thier opinions and expectations of birth will change for the better.

[3girls1boy]

Did you all miss Joey's comment (gag!)--"I just watched a woman breastfeeding both her twins at the same time! Is this a FREAK SHOW or what?!" Ack!!

Still liked Paul and Jamie's birth on "Mad About You" as best tv birth.

[Smilemomma]

OMG!!!

I guess I need to email them now. As a very happily bf mom of twins, that is uncalled for. What a jerk.

Except maybe to bring attention to the fact that you CAN breastfeed twins, which would be good to get out into the general population's IQ.

[Super Pickle]

Just wanted to ask if anyone remembers that when Ross' first son, Ben, was a baby, they did slip in a little plug about breastfeeding...and...he wore cloth diapers! I hope they do the same kind of things with Emma.

Oh, and gauge14iv, I cried over the commercial too! That was so amazing. Babies are so beautiful in the womb!