New TV series on midwifery

Awesome! I am so happy that TLC is going in this direction. I get so tired of the fully medicalized, desensitized birth being seen as the "norm" in the US.

I had a wonderful, natural birth, with nary a Tylenol. The natural high of it lasted for days. I felt like Superwoman. It was the most awesome, empowering thing I have ever done. I look back at my daughter's natural birth with such a feeling of pride and accomplishment. I actually feel *sorry* for mothers who don't get to experience it.

Maybe if more women are educated about natural childbirth choices, more women will feel capable of choosing one for themselves, and will then get to experience an awesome birth like my daughter's.

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Excellent! As someone planning a natural birth in July, it's so hard to find positive images to work from. This will certainly be added to my TiVo over the next few months. I'll have to let my Bradley instructor know about it as well.

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I caught one episode of this show a couple of weeks ago. It was great! It was so wonderful to see the births being treated as normal and the women not being treated as if they were ill. There was one mom who was overdue and she was outside playing basketball while she was in labor! WOW! The births were all beautiful waterbirths in the episode I saw. I hope that they continue with this series. It's very nice to see them balancing the super-medicalized births of their other shows with nice, low-risk, gentle births with midwives!

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A good idea! It's good to have all the information out there, so pregnant women can have a good look at both perspectives. :)

Shows like "Baby Story" are good simply because a woman may need a hospital birth against her wishes and a show like that will help show her that it isn't as scary as she may think. :)

And the other show would be good for showing the average pregnant woman what other options are available for her in her care. :)

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As someone who whines and moans continually about the "fuzzing" of public hair and the preponderance of c-sections on a Baby Story, this is kick butt to hear. I wanted a birthing center, but that doesn't exist here, so sadly, I ended up in a hospital. We're lucky in Canada to have 'Life's Birth Stories', which generally gives many views, without the fuzz, of childbirth. In fact, the last time I watched it was a home birth.

I'm with you Amy. My second was "natural, and virtually drug free (if you count nitrous) and it was an incredible experience. I felt SO much better a few hours later than I did with my first, induced, epidural delivery.

I'm so happy to see some balance!

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I'm all for women being able to give birth how they choose; however, some women may actually be comforted by being monitered and able to use pain relief. Sure, for thousands of years women gave birth the natural way, and many women and children died during this process. We now have the medical ability to provide support to the laboring mother, to allow her to take pain medication (do we all still have to carry the curse of Eve?). I am glad I was laying down (and medicated) for both pregnancies. With my twins, I was trying to deliver sans c-section, but if I hadn't been so closly monitered, I would have lost my second son and possibly my own life.
Natural childbirth works for some, but it's not for everybody. I just get the feeling that many women wish to give birth sans pain relief because they feel that's the way it's supposed to be (hence the Eve reference). Of course, every women should be allowed to make the choice, information on all types of childbirth should be given to to-be-mothers, but no woman should be made to feel bad for choosing a 'conventional' labor. It just seems that the natural childbirth movement is part of the SuperMom myth... that you're a sucky, horrible mom if you don't sacrifice everything (or do everything the hard way) for your child.

However, as I enjoy the Baby Story show, I'll probably tune in to watch the new one too (it's not like there's much else on for a while). I suppose it reminds me why I don't need any more babies right now! : )

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i love this idea, but don't have cable, so i won't be a viewer.

i gave birth naturally in a hospital and it was great to have the nurse there helping me along. my physician said if i hadn't of been able to move around my 31 hour labor would have been a lot more difficult. the labor itself wasn't bad, but working for that long was exhausting.

i think this show will be helpful where ever you plan on giving birth.

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I agree with Anna. I am sick and tired of people who are pro natural childbirth making those of us who choose a hospital and an epidural feel like we are doing something wrong, or I'm not tough enough. I gave birth to my daughter in a hospital with an epidural and it was perfect. I could feel to push, I could move my legs, and I only pushed for 20 minutes on my first birth. If I have a headache, I take pain reliever, why wouldn't I use some when I'm giving birth. Personally, I feel that even if it is a low risk birth, I want to be at a hospital with a doctor. Even a few minutes without enough oxygen can cause permanent brain damage to a baby, and it's not worth it to me to even take a chance.

That being said, to each her own. I know people who have done natural childbirth and are glad they did.

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I try to not get up on my high horse because I had one over monitored birth (in my opinion) and one so quick that there was no time to do anything with it. I was low risk with both, and I enjoyed the feeling of doing it myself, FOR myself, not because I had to to impress the Legion of Supermom.

That said, I also enjoyed actually feeling my body push out my first daughter with no pain since I had an epidural. BOTH births made me feel like a WOMAN. I felt strong and courageous and powerful.ANd I think that those of us who had that just want everyone else to have it too. Most of us just want women to CONTROL their births, and in some ways, using midwives and birthing centers can help us do that.

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