Yesterday, I sat down and watched an episode of “Dora the Explorer” with my daughter in which Dora was going to become “a big sister!” (No significance for my own personal life right now, just happened to be the next episode in the netflix queue.)
Anyways, the story starts out by Dora’s papa rushing to tell Dora to “come home right away, because Mama is going to have the baby.” Home? Come ON Dora, home? How come Dora isn’t going to visit Mama at the hospital? How come Mama has to have a homebirth?
Dora, of course, needs to follow her map to find her home. She needs to go through the Spooky forest and the Nut farm. (At least spooky and nutty somewhat describe my views of this episode)
When Dora arrives home, she finds ALL of her extended family there. She then goes into her parents bedroom to find her perfectly poised mother sitting up in bed. Come ON Dora, perfectly poised? How come Mama doesn’t look like she has just gone through the wringer?
When Dora looks at the bassinet, she finds, not one baby, but twins! Come ON Dora, twins? A homebirth AND a perfectly poised mother seconds after a twin birth?
Come ON Dora. Let’s get real here. In no way am I saying that I want a children’s show to be graphically displaying the perils of childbirth, however, it would be nice if this show could somewhat emulate what becoming a big sister will be like for my daughter. (when the time comes)
Thanks for reading,
Lauren
peaceoutofpieces 
Karen Hanscom Hale Said:
on February 21, 2012 at 8:52 pm
Most women in the world do still give birth at home or in a birthing clinic – NOT in a hospital setting. The US has the most medicalized births in the world and the highest mortality rate for mothers and babies of any other industrialized country. Hmm…I wonder if the two could be related? The other theme that we have here in the US is an absolute fear of childbirth. I wish I had had the guts or the opportunity to have a home birth with my daughter at my side. If I had it to do all over again that is exactly where I would have my baby, in the comfort of my own home. Childbirth is what a woman’s body was made to do and yet it is the one thing in this life that we are brought up to be terrified of. Until I was 30 I was terrified of having a baby – because I was afraid of the pain. Then we decided that we wanted to have a child and I thought, okay I can do this. I started out with a OB/GYN who would see me for 5 min and ask ME if I had any questions … this was my first time going through this. I didn’t know what questions to ask! I was so frustrated and felt so unprepared. That was when I read about Midwives. I was 26 weeks pregnant when I switched to a midwife and chose to learn Hynobirthing as my method of managing my labor. What an awesome decision that was! I learned so much about the fear I had been facing all my life and how unfounded it was. I will write more later.
peace4lauren Said:
on February 21, 2012 at 9:16 pm
Karen, thanks for sharing. As an advocate for those with birth trauma, I think it’s important to hear both sides. My big push is for women to have informed, comfortable, prenatal care as well as competent professionals by their side during the birth…no matter which path they choose! Unfortunately, there is not a lot out there in the media world for women who suffer from birth trauma-whether it be television programming or literature. I’m glad that you commented, it’s always nice to have the other side! :)Lauren
Tracy Said:
on February 22, 2012 at 3:16 am
Laur, maybe Dora took like six months to find her house and missed all of the birthing action? You’d think with the number of times she’s had to find her way, she’d just take a damn shortcut or go a familiar route. Does her family move a lot? What’s the deal? She needs a better map. I’d suggest Maps.com.