# Is painful, vaginal birth the default in film/TV? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 11, 2017, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-painful-vaginal-birth-the-default-in-film-tv/779509 "2017-02-11T00:44:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-painful-vaginal-birth-the-default-in-film-tv/779509/41 "2017-02-14T13:12:28Z")
A TV show can’t possibly devote more than a few minutes to childbirth, so they have to get maximum drama or maximum laughs from whatever they put on the air. They can’t show you a 6 hour moderately painful delivery, so they give us 5 minutes of shrieking instead. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-painful-vaginal-birth-the-default-in-film-tv/779509/42 "2017-02-14T16:46:16Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > A TV show can’t possibly devote more than a few minutes to childbirth, so they have to get maximum drama or maximum laughs from whatever they put on the air. > > They can’t show you a 6 hour moderately painful delivery, so they give us 5 minutes of shrieking instead. I don’t know that they can’t. They manage to show the passage of time for other events pretty well. But I agree that they tend not to. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-painful-vaginal-birth-the-default-in-film-tv/779509/43 "2017-02-14T17:13:15Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > Not every woman in the US gets an epidural when giving birth (I don’t remember if Rachel on _Friends_ did or not), and while I’ve never given birth myself it’s my understanding that an epidural doesn’t completely eliminate all discomfort. If you give it too soon, it can slow the delivery, which is a risk. And afterwards, you’re likely to get headaches. I figured that helping the pain in the middle wasn’t worth it and opted out. My daughter-in-law’s second epidural had complications. It was weeks before she could sit up or stand without feeling like she was being hit in the head with a hammer. It made nursing complicated. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-painful-vaginal-birth-the-default-in-film-tv/779509/44 "2017-02-14T17:22:09Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > If you give it too soon, it can slow the delivery, which is a risk. And afterwards, you’re likely to get headaches. I figured that helping the pain in the middle wasn’t worth it and opted out. > > My daughter-in-law’s second epidural had complications. It was weeks before she could sit up or stand without feeling like she was being hit in the head with a hammer. It made nursing complicated. As a counter-anecdote. My labor with my son was stalled and he was starting to get distressed. I was worn out after 12 hours of labor and opted for the epidural. He was born 20 minutes later. The doctor almost didn’t make it in time. There was no headache and minimal recovery time. Much easier than my previous birth without pain relief. My son’s Apgar scores were also at the top of the scale (another argument you often hear against pain relief). ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-painful-vaginal-birth-the-default-in-film-tv/779509/45 "2017-02-14T17:45:33Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > A TV show can’t possibly devote more than a few minutes to childbirth, so they have to get maximum drama or maximum laughs from whatever they put on the air. This. If childbirth is being depicted in a TV show or movie, it’s being shown for dramatic (or comedic) effect, and is more likely to incorporate common tropes about childbirth than it is to incorporate factual information. Everyone knows what a TV childbirth scene is like; not everyone knows what an actual childbirth is like. In this sense, it’s an awful lot like how TV shows use courtroom scenes. Epidurals and c-sections and such don’t necessarily lend themselves to bite-sized dramatic scenes – and if a TV show uses things like those, again, it’s going to be because those plot points support the particular story that the show is trying to tell. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-painful-vaginal-birth-the-default-in-film-tv/779509/46 "2017-02-14T18:16:58Z")
> [@cher3](#): > > My son’s Apgar scores were also at the top of the scale (another argument you often hear against pain relief). My daughter’s Apgar Score was a 9 out of 10 (the doctor saw some cyanosis). I argued with the doctor (a friend of a friend), claiming that she’d never get into a desirable preschool with an Apgar of 9. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-painful-vaginal-birth-the-default-in-film-tv/779509/47 "2017-02-15T20:48:48Z")
Glad to hear you had a good result, **cher**. Yeah, the headaches aren’t guaranteed and my DIL is the only person I know who had that particular mishap. ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-painful-vaginal-birth-the-default-in-film-tv/779509/48 "2017-02-17T02:29:09Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > A TV show can’t possibly devote more than a few minutes to childbirth, so they have to get maximum drama or maximum laughs from whatever they put on the air. > > They can’t show you a 6 hour moderately painful delivery, so they give us 5 minutes of shrieking instead. From the few child births i attended, because the loser non existent daddies could’t be bothered, it was more like 6 hours of rotating crying sobbing moaning shrieking, followed by a wonderful super shrieking finale. I’d have loved to attend the lady above, her’s sounds peaceful, not like someone being killed. I’d have loved for the daddies to show up too so i could beat them upside the head. That and it would have avoided the awkward questions from the hospital staff Oh are you the husband? NO the boyfriend? NO the babies father? NO her brother? NO are you gay? NO I’m just the person dumb enough to offer to bring her here ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-painful-vaginal-birth-the-default-in-film-tv/779509/49 "2017-02-17T02:51:02Z")
On Roseanne, when Jackie was giving birth, she had had an epidural. The gag was when she started stabbing her legs w/ a fork to prove it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-painful-vaginal-birth-the-default-in-film-tv/779509.md?page=2)