"One Born Every Minute"

Lifetime has a new show called "One Born Every Minute."  I was very excited and interested when I saw the preview, as I am with all things childbirth.  But I watched it last Tuesday and it got me VERY wound up.  The show takes place in an L&D ward in a hospital where they have installed 40 cameras to catch "all the action." Every episode they follow a few women's journeys to bring their babies into the world.  I thought it might be different than the shows that are currently on TV.  I was wrong.  Totally and completely wrong.  I was yelling at the TV practically the entire time.  I know they manipulate things to make it more dramatic, but some things you just can't fake.  Three of the four women they followed got epidurals, and the fourth one had to fight to just be left alone when her labor was taking "too long."  

The narration was ridiculous, making it sound like it was a horrible thing to NOT want an epidural and that women were finally pain-free once the anesthesiologist was finished.  No one treated birth like a normal, natural process.  It was a constant monitoring to make sure things were going normally and "textbook-ly." 

The saddest part about this show is that it is the epitome of birth in America.  If you want to know what an average birth is like in a hospital, watch this show.  If you don't want a predetermined view of birth, don't watch it.  I will say, though, that it is a good source to prepare you for what the normal processes are (so you know what you'll need in your birthplan) if you are having a hospital birth.  But please, only watch it if you feel strong in your decision to have an unmedicated birth.  Watching birth shows, especially when they show you a twisted view of it, can really affect anyone, especially a pregnant woman...and especially one who is planning a natural birth.  This is not how birth should be, and it's not how birth is if you are in control of the decisions that are made.

It's on Tuesdays at 10:00 pm ET on Lifetime...if you're interested.