Birth "As Seen On TV"

It's little wonder that only 5 in every 100 birthing women in Australia achieve a normal physiological birth when one considers the social attitudes and messages disseminated to the public about birth. The majority of women go into birth expecting it to be a medical drama because this is what they have taken away from cultural representations of birth. One of the biggest communication mediums that pushes dangerous concepts of birth onto the public is film and television.

I have watched countless representations of birth on television and in film. Every single birth I have seen has been hyper-medicalised and overly dramatic. And while I understand that drama boosts ratings I am tired of the old cliche that birth is a medical fiasco in which a woman risks her life. Aside from it being factually incorrect, it's politically and morally sinister because it influences the attitudes of viewers and convinces women that when their own time comes to birth, the safest thing to do is hand their agency and power over to the heroic doctor figure.

What Happens in a Film or Television Birth?

• The onset of labour is usually characterised by dramatic and unexpected pain which causes the pregnant woman to clutch at her belly, wince, buckle forward, and everyone around her to begin frantically calling out for an ambulance or a doctor.

• Invariably the birthing woman is taken out of her own clothes and dressed in a hospital gown.

• For the majority of the labour the woman lies on her back in a hospital bed.

• We never see the birthing woman eat, she may drink water and be fed ice chips, but food is usually absent.

• Characters who are adamant that they will have a natural birth are often turned into foolish looking failures who are given drugs and quite often end up in surgery, and the message that they would have died if it weren't for the intervening hospital staff is loud and clear.

• Caesareans are represented as perfectly safe run-of-the-mill birth procedures. In every representation of caesarean delivery I have seen on television the caesarean is credited with saving the life of either mother or child, more often than not it saves both. And in these stories normal birth (meaning unhindered birth, not just vaginal or drug free birth) is presented as the danger.

• Drugs in labour (including epidurals) are represented as risk-free and often the birthing woman will request them prior to going into labour, demanding the maximum legal dosages (often this is meant to be funny, but personally I find it far from amusing).

And in Reality?

• Labour begins gradually, often with weeks of prelabour where the body prepares itself, and the pregnant woman, for what lies ahead. The discomfort of early labour is not usually felt across the front of the pregnant stomach, but more commonly in the lower back and legs, or feels similarly to menstrual cramps (Henci Goer Are You Really in Labor?).

• For those who do go to a hospital to birth where they are expected to labour wearing hospital gowns there are very political motivations behind this. Think about the meanings of uniforms, why do certain institutions (for example prisons and schools) make individuals wear uniforms? To create uniformity, and to send a message to the individual about where they are and what is expected of them; to behave, toe the line, and accept unquestioningly that the prison guard, teacher and hospital staff are the rightful authorities. Whenever I think about hospital gowns I remember a cartoon in Birthing From Within (p.87) which shows a pregnant woman in a gown that has "Property of County Hospital" printed across her chest.

• Lying on your back in bed increases pain for the labouring woman, demands more of her energy, and puts unnecessary stress on her body because she is unable to use gravity to aid her. It also prevents the naturally occurring foetal ejection reflex characteristic of second stage labour, puts pressure on the coccyx, and compresses the mothers main blood vessels thereby restricting blood flow and oxygen to the baby (See J.G Anema, A.F Morey, J.W. McAninch, L.A. Mario & H. Wessells Complications related to the high lithotomy position during urethral reconstruction). Maternal passivity is counterproductive in birth and increases the mother and baby's risk of unnecessary intervention, the only so-called benefit of the lithotomy position in childbirth is that it gives the hospital staff greater control over the birth and the woman's body (From Birth as an American Rite of Passage).

• Women absolutely must eat and drink during labour in order to maintain healthy energy levels and hydration. This is imperative to healthy active normal labour, just as it is for healthy active normal life! By restricting a birthing woman's food intake you prevent her from birthing at her full potential and increase the risk of her requiring interventions and medical assistance (much the same as starving an athlete or denying a marathon runner water during her run would have dangerous and unhealthy results!) (Pat Thomas Labouring With Food?).

• At least 80% of all women are capable of giving birth safely without any assistance or intervention whatsoever! (Marsden Wagner Fish Can't See Water)
  

• Caesarean sections are major abdominal surgery, they are not a natural birth option, and are in no way safer or even close to being as safe as normal physiological birth! (Sarah Buckley Gentle Birth Gentle Mothering, pp.220-228; Henci Goer Obstetric Myths Versus Research Realities See also Henci Goer's articles on Caesarean; pp.20-155;Sheila Kitzinger The Politics of Birth, chapter 9 ; Marsden Wagner Technology in Birth & Choosing Caesarean Section; Childbirth.org Caesarean Fact Sheet).
  

• The drugs routinely offered to women during childbirth carry significant risks and side-effects for both mother and baby and present more risks to the health and well-being of women and babies than normal birth! (See Sarah Buckley Ecstatic Birth; Pain in Labour and Leaving Well Alone; Henci Goer's Articles; Marsden Wager The Active Management of Labor and Technology in Birth; Beverley Lawrence Beech Drugs in Labour)

Thanks to these fictional representations of birth many women accept that birth is an unsafe and commonly surgical event before they've even conceived a child! From these cultural representations of birth they have already learned that even trying to have a normal physiological birth is unreasonable and will only make the experience worse in the end. And the message that doctor knows best and is the rightful authority of your birth has been well and truly sent home by the time a woman actually reaches the point in her life when she wants to have a baby.

The individuals working in film and television who perpetuate these myths about birth play a central role in pacifying birthing women and preventing women's empowerment in childbirth. It is irresponsible of film and television writers to continually represent many dangerous interventions in birth as safe. They are the most prominent vehicle through which attitudes and ideas about birth are transmitted and therefore should have a responsibility to the public to refrain from perpetuating dangerous myths.

People working within the mediums of film and television have the power to educate and influence the public on a massive scale, and with that comes responsibility. The challenge is how to go about making those power-holders accountable for their responsibility? In some respects it is a case of which came first; the chicken or the egg? because television writers and producers are not going to portray normal birth unless it is a ratings winner first, which means it needs to be popular amongst the viewing public first, but how can it become popular if the viewing public never see it? I am left concluding that the best we can do is bombard writers, producers, directors, actors etc. with information about the true nature and safety of birth. And pray that Angelina or one of her equally famous and desirable colleagues gets homebirthing!