Introduction
Reality TV broadcasts programs that are meant to portray how various activities happen in reality. However, they often exaggerate the reality of those activities to create a thrilling program for the viewers. According to health experts, childbirth is exaggerated in reality TV. Reality TV portrays childbirth as a painful and dangerous experience yet it is not in real life. This form of description imparts fear and wrong perceptions to many women, across the globe. Traditionally, midwifery was a commonality practiced, within the community, to help women through their labor. This was done by midwives who had experience in childbirth.
Childbirth was taught to the majority of women in the community because it was perceived to be their duty. Later on, childbirth was handled by professional doctors in hospitals. Given the advent of hospitals, the need for midwifery decreased and eventually, the majority of women lacked the know-how on childbirth. This created an information gap, which is being filled by the media. Through reality shows on childbirth, women across the globe get birth information. The only reservation is that media programs are not always accurate. This essay seeks to highlight the media portrayal of childbirth and actual reality.
Genesis of Media Reporting and Childbirth
The 19th century represents a period when childbirth was a task done by community women. This meant that pregnant women were to be assisted during labor by their fellow women at home. The women who assisted during childbirth were called midwives. The midwives applied their knowledge of cultural knowledge and traditions. However, this trend changed in 1900 when childbirth was incorporated into the doctors’ tasks. The number of doctors was increasing gradually; hence, childbirth became synonymous with the doctors. The media campaigned for the abandonment of the midwives because they caused a lot of pain to women.
They also argued that doctors could perform childbirth without the women experiencing any pain. Initially, women were reluctant to seek medical birth since it did not incorporate local culture. Continued media influence made a majority of women lose faith in their traditional methods of childbirth. This change of perception resulted in a high number of women going to hospitals for childbirth services.
Doctors apply only medical knowledge when assisting women through childbirth. Childbirth knowledge, as a result, can only be received during labor since a majority of women lack that experience. This has created a vacuum of the uncertainty of childbirth. This vacuum is being exploited by reality TV, which is misrepresenting, the concept of childbirth. The majority of women believed perceptions from these reality programs due to a lack of information on the issue.
The media have undergone a series of evolutions in casting their programs related to childbirth. In the 1920s, the media treated childbirth as a natural phenomenon that occurred without any complications. It further depicted childbirth as a biological role for women. All media programs portrayed childbirth as a private affair since it was related to sex, which attracted a barrage of taboos. During the 1930s and 1940s, hospitals were predominantly used for childbirth.
This period was marked by decreased infant mortality rates. Maternal complications were easily dealt with effectively reducing maternal deaths. The media came up with programs that demonized traditional childbirth for causing high mortality rates. They reflected on the loss of life due to traditional practices. As the hospital intervention was growing in its sophistication, the media were focused deeply on reporting about various methods and equipment for childbirth. There was a lot of innovation in this field that became the subject for the majority of media programs. The 1980s marked the advent of fictional programs on childbirth. Fiction depicts that the process of childbirth is a highly sophisticated process that involves complex equipment and technology. It portrays the women’s reaction with a deceptive exaggeration of their emotions.
TV Childbirth and the Reality
The majority of expectant women have a high degree of interest to watch TV programs on childbirth. They claim that the programs are not only instructive but also make them aware of what to expect (Gabriel, 2011, p.58). However, most analysts think that these shows are often not accurate. This, thus, gives a misguiding perception of what transpires during childbirth. In these shows, labor takes too long and is somewhat a tedious process. All the shows depict childbirth as an excruciating process that is rife with fatal complications. Further, almost all women in reality shows are portrayed to scream in agony during childbirth.
These perceptions induce this form of reaction to the majority of women at labor. For instance, a woman who believes that labor is painful; will always experience pain during childbirth. These shows also portray midwives and women who give birth naturally as backward and uncivilized. The shows portray natural birth in a demeaning manner and thus the rising preference for cesarean births. Doulas are not spared either in these TV shows. They are delineated as demented human beings. The majority of critics of TV shows think that the shows are not factual hence should be watched for entertainment purposes only.
The prevalence of commercial broadcasts has triggered the propagation of dramatized and inaccurate shows on childbirth. The women and girls who watch these shows develop a misconception about labor and birth. The information vacuum created by the rejection of doulas and midwives is filled by information in magazines, the internet, and TV. The effect of media on childbirth is tremendously significant to the extent that the majority of women prefer getting information from TV shows to attending prenatal clinics. This exposure to inaccurate material has left many women vulnerable due to the enormous negative influence of the shows.
This negative depiction has forced the midwives and doulas to sensitize women on the myths surrounding their role in childbirth. A study conducted by Clement in 1997 about TV childbirth revealed many disparities from real childbirth. In TV shows, childbirth is associated with complications and uncertain labor outcomes. This scenario underscores the thrill that these shows intend to pass to the viewers, which is not the reality. According to the findings from the study, about 75% of women gave birth in hospital while the rest were at home (Varney, Kriebs, & Gegor, 2004, p. 463).
TV shows describe the births at home as accidental and attribute them to failure of timely access to the hospital. Premeditated births at home were risky and unpredictable. In British TV, the Majority of women believe TV births are not real. These births occur unexpectedly in stadiums, in class, in toilets, or in any other place. The drama is created due to failure to access a health facility.
The studies carried out by Clement found that most TV shows exhibited labor as an emergency. Labors attracted rushed reactions from doctors with the family members drowned in panic. This move is purely for purposes of comedy, as it does not happen that way in reality. These were responded to by doctors who were dressed in surgical caps and dust coats all the time. In Britain, maternal care was provided by midwives who never put on theater gowns. In TV shows, few births involved their partners partly due to the emergency laborers. The intensity of birth is depicted as extremely agonizing and exhausting.
Common to the majority shows is the emergency treatments accorded women in labor. Anesthesia is commonly used during labor, to remove the pain. These statistics compelled Clement to conclude that the inherent variations between TV shows and reality were a world apart pointing to the inaccuracy of TV childbirth. According to studies by VandeVusse, in a majority of laborers, there was regular check on the fetal heartbeat rate and blood pressure checks.
He further stated that about 73% had epidural services whereas about 27% used Pitocin to stimulate labor. Midwives were portrayed as offering minimal medical interventions and irregular fetal observation. The midwives did not provide induction and epidural. The midwives used methods like walking, bathing, and standing to reduce pain. TV reality shows described medical childbirth and midwifery as employing unique approaches.
Conclusion
Negative publicity imparts misconceived perceptions to women about birth. These wrong perceptions have influenced adversely to decision-making capacity by women, partly because of tokophobia that has been imparted to the women. The majority of young women are avoiding pregnancy, natural birth, or even regularly terminating a pregnancy due to fear. It has also caused the majority to opt for elective cesarean to natural birth. In conclusion, midwives, doulas, and other people providing care to pregnant women should provide adequate sensitization about the TV shows, depiction of childbirth, and the actual reality.
References
Gabriel, C. (2011). Natural Hospital Birth: The Best of Both Worlds. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Varney, H., Kriebs, J. M., & Gegor, C. L. (2004). Varney’s Midwifery. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Learning.