TV births - why do people think a hospital/OB is necessary to give birth?

Sue wrote:
"CJRA" wrote in message
WHOA! I wasn't knocking OBs. I have one whom I am thrilled with. I was
more amazed at the argument her husband "can't deliver the baby!"

Well it is just a TV show. It adds drama and suspense. I don't really count
what a TV show has to offer about real life.

Unfortunately, TV is the main media source for the vast majority of our
population. It's the manner in which much information is spread. While
most recognise it's not 'real' life, what is portrayed on TV is
filtered out through society. It'd be nice to see other options
portrayed, just so people know what's possible.

Not at all. Why the hostility?

No hostility. I just get tired of hearing that the only way to birth is at
home.

Not once have I ever stated the only way to birth is at home. Never. I
fully support those who choose a hospital birth, as I may have to
myself. If you have issue with certain individuals, take it up with
them. But don't propose that all who chooe a homebirth are attacking
your choices.


That's not the only way and if you want respect for your decisions,
then you need to respect other people decisions to do thing different than
you. Even though you say you do, from this post and others, I can tell that
you have your bias.

Yes, I have a bias towards homebirth. I don't deny that, why should I?
But I also don't disrespect people who choose hospital births. Perhaps
you're confusing me with someone else. I have issues with those who
insist any birth outside hospital is endangering your child, and you
must not be a good mother or a deserving mother if you choose such a
'risky' route (things I've heard before, I'm not suggesting you've said
this). I believe it's important for people to understand the reality of
it all, to KNOW there are other options besides the standard medical
model.



I fully support every woman's choice to birth however she pleases, and
my post in no way stated the contrary. I would just love to see a TV
protrayl of a birth outside a hospital as something that *isn't* a
disaster.

Then you should have wached the Discovery Channel Birth Day yesterday. It
showed a mom giving birth in water, at a birth center, with her family and
2-year-old daughter present. The whole midwife, natural delivery and
breastfeeding were all there. Much like being on MKP.


That's great. I really don't watch much TV overall, and I don't have
cable, so it's easy to miss.I'm glad to hear it's out there.

Mum of Two wrote:
I don't think I'd want to give birth in an elevator. Too cramped, not a lot
of room to move around during labour.

Same here,not my ideal locale ;-)


I'd pass on having my brother
delivering the baby too, even if he _was_ a med student! I'd sooner deliver
it myself :-P

In the show,she was insisting her brother deliver rather than her
husband, because bro was a med student. The husband was saying he
should because he didn't want another man 'seeing her'(I did say it was
stupid).


The idea that birth is _always_ a medical emergency, as portrayed on TV, is
more than a little silly. It's going to be some of the time, but I'd hazard
a guess that women who deliver as quickly as that have a greater risk of
being hurt during an ambulance accident than of coming to harm from
delivering in an elevator (or car, or Woolworths, or wherever else you
please).

Exactly! Since I don't want much TV maybe there is much more than not
and I just miss it, but the only births I see on standard TV are the
emergency ones. Sure, it's drama, but come on, surely they can show
other options from time to time. Like it or not, that's how the vast
majority of the population gets info about birth, until they're
motivated to start doing their own research.





--
Amy
Mum to Carlos born sleeping 20/11/02,
& Ana born screaming 30/06/04
http://www.freewebs.com/carlos2002/
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/a/ana%5Fj%5F2004/
My blog: http://spaces.msn.com/members/querer-hijo-querer-hija/


"CJRA" wrote in message
oups.com...
And all else is a disaster?

I have no idea what show this is I have on... teenage-ish pg woman in
trapped in a elevator with her med school brother. EMTs have arrived.
Brother is about to 'deliver the baby', but the husband arrives (from
the ceiling) and freaks out and says he can deliver the baby. PG woman
insists he "can't deliver the baby, at least bro is a doctor".... add
in the people outside are freaking, parents say it's ok bro is a doc,
sort of, well, a med student, they freak more but at least the EMTs are
there.

Ok, stupid show, but come on! Why the idea that a baby can't be born in
any place but a hospital with an OB?!

CJRA wrote:
And all else is a disaster?

I have no idea what show this is I have on... teenage-ish pg woman in
trapped in a elevator with her med school brother. EMTs have arrived.
Brother is about to 'deliver the baby', but the husband arrives (from
the ceiling) and freaks out and says he can deliver the baby. PG woman
insists he "can't deliver the baby, at least bro is a doctor".... add
in the people outside are freaking, parents say it's ok bro is a doc,
sort of, well, a med student, they freak more but at least the EMTs are
there.


OK, I'm going to hazard a guess that this is 7th Heaven and it's Lucy
giving birth. I didn't actually see all of this episode and stopped
watching the show around this time, so I can't be sure. Funny thing
is, husband is a firefighter, so he probably has enough training to be
able to deliver the baby. Some background that might make this more
understandable is that the family freaking out about _anything_ is
pretty typical, and Lucy is such a control freak that she had been
overplanning her labor anyway. (Plus if I remember right it was a
preemie or there had been complications (previa?) anticipated.)
What I always love about TV and movie labors is that somehow the woman
is simultaneously in agonizing pain and beautifully groomed. Either it
hurts bad enough you don't care what you look like, or you look good
because it doesn't hurt as bad as you thought, right? Not to mention
the adorable pink round-headed newborns. Granted,who is going to let
their few-day old baby be on a TV set, but can't they make up the 3
month old to look a little bruised and funky?

Amy

Mum of Two wrote:

The idea that birth is _always_ a medical emergency, as portrayed on TV, is
more than a little silly. It's going to be some of the time, but I'd hazard
a guess that women who deliver as quickly as that have a greater risk of
being hurt during an ambulance accident than of coming to harm from
delivering in an elevator (or car, or Woolworths, or wherever else you
please).

Full term precipitate births like that (not enough time to
make it to the hospital, etc.) rarely have any complications.

Best wishes,
Ericka

"Ericka Kammerer" wrote in message
...
Mum of Two wrote:

The idea that birth is _always_ a medical emergency, as portrayed on TV,
is more than a little silly. It's going to be some of the time, but I'd
hazard a guess that women who deliver as quickly as that have a greater
risk of being hurt during an ambulance accident than of coming to harm
from delivering in an elevator (or car, or Woolworths, or wherever else
you please).

Full term precipitate births like that (not enough time to
make it to the hospital, etc.) rarely have any complications.

That was my point, though perhaps understated :-)


--
Amy
Mum to Carlos born sleeping 20/11/02,
& Ana born screaming 30/06/04
http://www.freewebs.com/carlos2002/
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/a/ana%5Fj%5F2004/
My blog: http://spaces.msn.com/members/querer-hijo-querer-hija/

"Sue" wrote in message
...
"CJRA" wrote in message
WHOA! I wasn't knocking OBs. I have one whom I am thrilled with. I was
more amazed at the argument her husband "can't deliver the baby!"

Well it is just a TV show. It adds drama and suspense. I don't really
count
what a TV show has to offer about real life.

While I understand what you're saying, I'm not sure TV should be off the
hook because it's not "real life". Sooooo many cultural expectations are
either created by or supported by what we see on TV. I know I have read a
*lot* of press in the past few years about the way TV shows about family
life tend to depict the men as clueless, ineffective parents and spouses,
and I agree with the critics that this is not a good thing. Just because the
moms wind up looking good in comparison to the dads doesn't make these
depictions positive!

Not at all. Why the hostility?

No hostility. I just get tired of hearing that the only way to birth is at
home. That's not the only way and if you want respect for your decisions,
then you need to respect other people decisions to do thing different than
you. Even though you say you do, from this post and others, I can tell
that
you have your bias.

You know, I agree that in this particular newsgroup, there tends to be a
bias in favor of home birth, but if you look at the choice of birth location
of the majority of the folks who post here, it's NOT at home. The vast
majority of births to members of this group have been in hospitals, with a
smaller but significant proportion in birth centers and the smallest
percentage of all at home.

The fact is, however, that in the BROADER world, the ONLY place to birth is
hospitals. People think deciding to home birth is just plain nuts. I have
encountered FAR, FAR more people who think that hospitals are the ONLY safe
place to have a baby than people who think the ONLY safe place to have a
baby is at home. (And, in fact, I've never met anyone, even a home birth
advocate, who thinks that ALL women in ALL pregnancies should have their
babies at home, while I've met plenty of who think ALL women in ALL
pregnancies should have their babies in hospitals).

What CJRA is complaining about, and I fully agree with her, is that the way
birth is typically depicted on TV simply reinforces the cultural expectation
that birth is a scary, dangerous affair that medical intervention to proceed
with even a modicum of safety. And that's just plain NOT TRUE (just as it's
not true that most men are are clueless and ineffective as parents and
spouses!).
--
Be well, Barbara

Sue wrote:

No hostility. I just get tired of hearing that the only way to birth is at
home.

Funny... I too chose a homebirth, and I got REALLY tired of all the
people out there that told me they worried that I was risking my baby's
health, and that I was crazy, that they didn't know that anyone still
did that.

The ONLY place - outside of my family - that I found support for my
decision was on MKP, where I got support for my decisions from both
home and hospital birthers.

Cathy Weeks

On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 08:46:38 -0700, "Circe" wrote:

While I understand what you're saying, I'm not sure TV should be off the
hook because it's not "real life". Sooooo many cultural expectations are
either created by or supported by what we see on TV. I know I have read a
*lot* of press in the past few years about the way TV shows about family
life tend to depict the men as clueless, ineffective parents and spouses,
and I agree with the critics that this is not a good thing. Just because the
moms wind up looking good in comparison to the dads doesn't make these
depictions positive!

Yes. And I really hate commercials that depict fathers as inept, as
well. The ones I don't care for the most are the JCPenney commercials
where dad is having all kinds of trouble taking care of the kiddies
and wonders, "Where IS your mother?!" and the next scene shows her
shopping.
Ugh.

Nan

Sue wrote:
"Cathy Weeks" wrote in message
Funny... I too chose a homebirth, and I got REALLY tired of all the
people out there that told me they worried that I was risking my baby's
health, and that I was crazy, that they didn't know that anyone still
did that.

The ONLY place - outside of my family - that I found support for my
decision was on MKP, where I got support for my decisions from both
home and hospital birthers.

Cathy Weeks

I guess we can't have it both ways. ) No one is ever happy when it comes
to parenting, giving birth, etc.... I think that's why the parents must stay
convicted in their choices and give an air of authority on how to have a
baby, raise them and feed them. But, you chose a homebirth and that is the
predominance for this group. I get the feeling that hospitals and doctors
are the antichrist on this and MKB.
--

Since you've said you followed all my posts, you must have also seen my
complaint Henci Goer's book - tho I recommend it and believe it's a
useful source for info, *I* criticized it for what I perceived to be an
anti-OB/hospital bias, arguing that such a position was potentially
counter productive. *I* argued that while I chose a homebirth, *I*
specifically stated I didn't believe doctors or hospitals were the
antichrist and should not be represented as such.

Now, a few weeks later I had a horrible experience with an ER doc and
staff, solidifying my desire to have a homebirth. I also stated my very
positive subsequent experience with my OB and a different hospital when
I had to have a D&C.

Now, while I've found support here for homebirths, more than amongst
the general public and on another pregnancy chat board, I'd say the
vast majority of people here have *not* had homebirths. But like in
many things, the few who have or are at least supportive of it are very
vocal - *because* there is so little support elsewhere. On another
mainstream pg group I frequent, it'd seem the rate of miscarriage is
exorbitantly high, but that's because people who've experienced it rush
to support each new person going through it. They are more vocal, but
that doesn't mean the rate of miscarriage is so high, even within that
group. And that group is decidedly anti-homebirth, but the few of us
who support it are vocal in doing so, to encourage those few whom
otherwise have little support.

"Sue" wrote in message
...
But, you chose a homebirth and that is the
predominance for this group.

I really think you're mistaken about that. I think there is lots of support
here for home birth and there's certainly a higher proportion of people who
chose home birth who post here than in the general populace, but I'll bet if
you polled the posters here at any given time, you'd find that *well* over
50% chose a hospital birth. Now, it's probably true that the "regulars" who
have posted here for periods of years are probably more heavily weighted
towards home birthers than the "transient posters" (for lack of a better
term!), but still, I bet they're not a majority. So, while I think home
birth is certainly much more common and accepted here than in the world at
large, I don't believe that it is, in fact, the "predominance" for the
group.
--
Be well, Barbara