Comments on: Why Our Women are Afraid of Birth

By: Katie Page

Katie Page — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:49:57 +0000

I appreciate this blog. I am a newly graduated midwife and will soon be certified (a nice New Year’s gift to myself….and my husband!). I was watching these shows this morning in the gym and just became furious. The worst things about them all is the commentary (ex: “when her mother’s touch could no longer ease her pain at 7 cm, she finally begged for the epidural to take her pain away”, or “the baby had the cord around its neck but I was able to easily reduce it so there was no emergency” – as if nuchal cords didn’t happen ALL THE TIME!) and the music -the piano that sounds like you are watching a slasher movie and someone/something is about to die (isn’t it though?).

I am glad that there are so many women in the birthing community speaking out for honest reporesentation of the natural processes of life. Thank you! I hope that someday there will be an honest show about pregnancy and birth.

By: mandy

mandy — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:21:06 +0000

I wrote something on my blog along the same lines…couldn’t agree with you more! Just the TITLE of the show, “Deliver Me” is offfensive…as if we all need doctors to deliever us from the pain and angst of birthing!
here’s my blog entry if you are interested. http://www.3doulas.com/3doulas/television/

By: Sheridan

Sheridan — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:41:42 +0000

I so agree with everything you said. It is a shame that many women never take a childbirth class, but watch these shows daily and feel that they are ready for birth.

By: Kerry Tuschhoff

Kerry Tuschhoff — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:07:46 +0000

Thanks for writing this; it is much needed. Yes, in Hypnobabies we do advise that *all* expectant mothers avoid watching the TV “birth” shows which show almost exclusively negative and frightening portrayals of childbirth, and there is much more to the story than just the scariness factor. The mind literally becomes *imprinted* with what it sees when we are watching a screen of any kind; we enter a state of much greater suggestiveness – an actual state of hypnosis, when we have been reading a book, a web page or watching a screen of any kind for even a short while.

In this state, when an expectant woman watches these shows, her inner mind which is responsible for collecting data and creating her belief systems about childbirth, is flooded with images, sounds and emotional responses that are frightening, misleading and detrimental to a positive belief system about *normal* childbirth. (What is shown on TV is *not* normal childbirth; it is sensationalism at its best…or worst.)

The subconscious then reacts in a very literal way, accepting what is shown to it (over and over) as the truth, and will not only produce fear, from watching all of the inductions, C-sections, other unnecessary procedures and drama, it also imprints what it is seeing, actually *creating* similar situations in the expectant mother who is watching all this silliness, and the cycle goes on and on. Women are literally re-creating negative birthing scenarios in themselves by watching ridiculous TV shows. Our minds are extremely powerful, and we can use them in a negative way or a positive way. For childbirth, we need to take responsibility for our own births and use our minds in a positive way if we want to produce the best and safest experience for mom and baby.

I doubt it if any of the shows would be taken off of the air if the producers knew about these negative effects, but I would love for them to understand what they are doing anyway. Please pass this information on to any expectant mothers you know!

Thanks,
Kerry Tuschhoff
Founder/Director of Hypnobabies

By: jenne Alderks

jenne Alderks — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 07:57:03 +0000

I too have been wishing for TV shows that portray normal birth. Here is a petition that I’m hoping gets signatures showing cable channels that the interest is there:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/TVbirth/petition.html

By: Carol Van Der Woude

Carol Van Der Woude — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:39:33 +0000

You are right about the fear factor. Women are anxious about labor and birth. Obstetricians order amniotic fluid level tests, encourage women to deliver at 39 weeks, offer elective cesarean
sections–in pursuit of the the perfect outcome. Doctors say fearful things–they are afraid of lawsuits.
It is not only TV that portrays childbirth in a fear inducing way.The novel, Midwives, by Chris Bohjalian tells a frightful story about a midwife. This was an Oprah book club selection.
A careful search of literature turns up honest appraisal of physiologic birth, midwife attended birth. The diary of Martha Ballard (18th century midwife) developed into a story by Laurel T. Ulrich is solid in support of normal birth. The title of the book is A Midwife’s Tale. The memoir of an English midwife is another good read, The Midwife by Jennifer Worth.
In promoting physiologic birth we need to get the message out in letters to the editor (newspapers), magazine articles and story.

By: Rochelle

Rochelle — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:27:46 +0000

I used Hypnobabies (successfully!) for my daughter’s birth. One of the “rules” of the program is to avoid all pregnancy-related TV shows like “A Baby Story” and “Deliver Me” because they only show such negative, high risk, intervention-heavy births. Hypnobabies believes that if you watch enough, you’ll lose sight of your goal of natural childbirth and start believing that the births on those TV shows are what all births look like. Even now, several months after my daughter’s birth, I flip by those shows and just cringe at what kind of messages they’re sending to their audience.