I guess I should consider it appropriate that this week’s installment of Not Quite Primetime focuses on a baby show, as I’m gearing up for the birth of my second child (due at the end of the month).
I have been familiar with TLC’s A Baby Story for a few years now. Before I was ever pregnant with my first daughter (who is now almost two), I watched with fascination and admiration for the ladies who would put their pregnancies — and births — out there for all to see. This is before I had ever read any literature on pregnancy, childbirth, parenting, and so on, and hadn’t really considered that “flat on your hospital bed with legs up and people screaming at you to push” was not the only way.
As I educated myself more and more with different approaches to childbirth, I realized that A Baby Story is limited in that it focuses mostly on mainstream hospital births, interventions, and “scare tactics.” It made me increasingly uncomfortable to watch mom after mom go through the motions of being admitted, talking to her doctor, and having (seemingly) no opinions on how her baby was to be born. Often, you hear the mom saying, “Well, you’re the doctor; I trust whatever you say.” They agree to having membranes stripped, water artificially broken, and cervical ripeners (such as cervadil or cytotec) inserted without so much as a discussion. (I understand, however, that these conversations could have been had previously or off-camera. However, what we, the viewers, see is a mom who does not really seem to be an advocate in her own birth experience, and that can still have an effect on mothers who are pregnant and thinking about their options.)
In the first of two episodes airing today, we are introduced to the Zakim family. They already have one older son and are cautiously awaiting the birth of their second child. Everything that happens is met with tons of questions by the mother. “I don’t know if it is labor, if it’s not labor, if I’m just feeling crampy because of the exam … this could be it. We’re trying to decide who to call. Do we call our parents, do we try to make arrangements…” She goes on like this throughout the episode, sort of an annoying live mommy-blog stream of consciousness. It could be her personality, but I’m also pretty sure that the producers made her dictate every little detail of what was going through her mind at each and every moment to build tension and interest.
We’re given a little bit of backstory on this family, which is that Judy Zakim suffered two previous miscarriages, as well as a spotting scare five weeks into her current pregnancy, so that definitely accounts for her fear when it comes to birthing a healthy baby (although her son Nathan is living proof that she is able to do so). I do understand that every pregnancy is different, and even moms who have been there before get freaked out at little things (case in point: me).
I did highly appreciate how Judy’s midwife, Erin, encouraged her to walk around the halls in the hospital, especially since she was at five centimeters and contractions were not really too strong. What a departure from most of the hospital stories you hear about women whose hospital staff feel the need to “move things along” and serve up a cocktail of pitocin (the synthetic version of the hormone oxytocin, which brings on contractions) followed by a recommendation for an epidural (anesthesia injected into the area surrounding the spinal column to numb your lower half).
Most of the episodes of A Baby Story that I’ve watched have ended this way (with an epidural or a c-section), even when the mom was aiming for a natural birth. Plus, “scary questions” like these are always asked by the narrator before commercial breaks or before the episode begins:
After Judy’s midwife Erin breaks her water at 8:05 pm (about six hours after she first started to experience contractions), contractions get stronger, and I am really enjoying the interactions between Erin and Judy. The midwife talks mom through contractions and helps her with pain management, changing positions, applying counter-pressure to her hips, and so on, all without mentioning an epidural. What a nice thing to see on this show!
Judy’s husband also has some very wise words: “We were waiting for this baby, and it was a process to get here, so even though the pain is gonna happen, she knows that while it’s happening, and I know that while it’s happening, it’s gonna end, and it’s gonna be worthwhile.”
However, Judy requests the epidural (which, in my opinion, is just fine — I am just glad that the staff did not push that on her!) soon after that. The irony is that, while she was waiting for the epidural to take effect, Erin checked her and she was fully dilated and ready to push! The big question from the “scary narrator” becomes, “Will the epidural have time to take effect?” which is just a silly way to make a big deal out of something that Judy is obviously in control of. The fact that her epidural didn’t really fully take effect before she got the urge to push is beneficial, because when women cannot feel that urge, the birth can take longer than it would had the mom known when to use the contractions with her own effort to help the baby down the birth canal.
With what seems like only a few pushes, her baby is out, and with minimal intrusion from the hospital staff. At no point during the birth did anybody say, “We’ve gotta use a vacuum to get this baby out!” nor did they decide to perform an episiotomy (don’t click the link if you are squeamish) to avoid natural tearing. I was very surprised at how this episode of A Baby Story mostly left this woman to just have a baby without having an annoying doctor or nurse tell her she couldn’t do it on her own.
So will I continue watching A Baby Story until I have my next baby? Probably not, but it was fun to watch again just this once.
Clacked by Rachel Blum-Jose 
on Jul 12, 2012 @ 17:57 EST5EDT
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