Distortion of Natural Birth

I was so happy to follow up on Ashley’s Midwife Vs. Medwife post because I really feel as though this will be a little piggy back on the subject. Last night I tuned into ABC’s hit series Private Practice, and during the episode I seriously started to wonder why I continue to watch the show that makes my blood boil.

But what really ate at me was they way they portrayed a mother who was working towards a natural birth. Which made me think about the way that the public views the natural birth community, as well as women who simply want a natural birth for themselves.

They treated this woman in the episode like the butt of all the jokes in the episode until the emotionally charged climax of her birth viewed by perfect strangers that would have been a major HIPAA Violation.  The episode shows this woman with a multi-page birth plan, grinding on the door frame of the birth suite trying to squat to help her labor, joking about how she had been in labor for 3+ days, all of which as a mother who has labored naturally, I found offensive.  The character was essentially the comedy of the episode.

It made me think about the perception the American public is going to get from this message, as well as their views on women who do choose to give birth naturally. Do they think we are all just a bunch of hippies that bite on sticks until we drop a baby out in the middle of a meadow while singing show tunes?  Come on!

The problem is shows like this.
The problem is the myths about who has natural births.
The problem is typical stereotypes.

Where do we start?
How do we start to re-educate and properly educate the public so they don’t think all moms who want to have a natural birth aren’t ding bats like this character was?

I really hope that shows like this, and Grey’s Anatomy, and other medical drama’s take the time to fix the American stereotype of birthing naturally. Women from all walks of life do it!

Just on a side note, the character who was attending this woman’s birth “Dell” a “student midwife” came off as a Student OB/GYN if anything. He had no type of midwife qualities in him what so ever and I think that is another huge slap to the natural birth community. He at best was a “medwife” if that!