Births on TV June 18, 2007

I’ve come to refer to TLC’s “A Baby Story” as “A C-section Story,” and can hardly stand to watch it anymore.  I’ve heard good things about “House of Babies” but I don’t get the channel.

But what about the births on TV that serve as entertainment — the births on dramas and comedies.

I love Grey’s Anatomy, but after the last season, I began to question if Addison Montgomery Shepherd actually knew how to catch a baby (as opposed to surgically removing one in a C-section) [although YAY for Dr. Baily for standing up to her and being proactive - moving around, the right positions, etc. and birthing her baby].  I guess the medical dramas need the…. drama.   They need the tense birth — with the machines that go ping and the  doctor saving a life or two.  But how does this affect the average TV viewer’s idea of birth?

A lot of people think they know CPR well enough because of the hours spent watching Baywatch.  I can almost perfectly diagnose a character’s illness or condition on any given show because the of years I was addicted to ER.  So, does watching C-section after C-section on TV make me feel that C-section is the norm?  That it’s safe?  That it can be become necessary, done, and you’re recovered and sitting up and/or walking around in a single half hour?

I’d like to thank some of the popular fictional TV shows that have shown birth to be birth… through the birth canal.  And – what’s even better – is that a lot of them have shown vaginal birth with twins or multiples!  [Yes, you can birth twins or triplets...]

Thank you, Lifetime TV’s “Army Wives!”
- Pamela has a [unplanned] “homebirth” — well, it was a bar-birth -  of twins!

Thank you, “The Nanny!” 
- a hospital, vaginal birth of twins!

 Thank you, “Friends!” 
Phoebe birthed triplets vaginally!

And the mom of the babies Monica and Chandler adopted had a vaginal twin birth!

Even Rachel had a vaginal birth!

Thank you, “Notes from the Underbelly!”

Julie had a hospital, vaginal birth.

Thank you, “Lost!” 

Claire had an drug-free, unassisted homebirth, err, I mean junglebirth.

I’m sure that there are more…. I hope that there are more.  And I really, really hope that there are more to come!