Recently I’ve found myself watching old episodes of How I Met Your Mother that are currently On Demand. If you’ve ever watched a show that way you’re aware of how short the “commercials” are, which makes it tough to fast-forward to the continuation of your show. The result? I’ve caught a lot of short spots for the new Lifetime series, One Born Every Minute.
Now I’m sure it’s partly a function of editing, but my impression of the series was sort of a “Folks say the darndest things while waiting to go into labor,” mixed, of course, with the emotion of parenthood. And so I thought it would be good for some laughs and a week’s column to check out the hilarity of a delivery room, because who knew there was comedy to be found there?
Last week’s episode featured three pregnant women. The first was an “older” couple, pregnant for the first time and in to deliver twins. The second was a single mother of a five year-old boy in with her second. And the third was a woman expecting her first child and waiting for her boyfriend to make it back from school.
The most entertaining of the couples was Mr. and Mrs. Twin, first because he’s an intimate portrait enthusiast — no further explanation necessary, I hope — and second because she was exactly what you’d expect a woman fed up with both her husband and seventeen hours of labor to be. He was wildly annoying, and it turns out that he’d also made up many of the clips on the promo that I’d seen. Let’s just say that she’s a saint for putting up with him … and I wish her luck raising three children going forward.
Second-time mom, I think, was supposed to be a heartfelt story because of how jarring an addition the new baby was going to be to her older son. However, considering the fact that her five year-old left early on, I think a lot of the heart was missing from the story. It was nice, and of course it’s great that she delivered safely, but her tale didn’t have the kind of story you’d expect the producers to have been looking for. Well, aside from her removing her own lip ring while contractions crashed down on her.
First-timer’s story was supposed to be about how overwhelmed she was by all the people in her delivery room — her sister, a drunk friend, her mother, and her boyfriend’s mother — but I think the real story there was when the doctor told her that “the time for an epidural has passed.” My wife was yelling at the woman when she first refused drugs; what is the point in doing that? But you had to feel her pain when she got the word that it was too late. Can I say ouch?
So the show wasn’t “Folks say the darndest things,” but then all it was was watching three women wait to deliver their babies. Not that there’s anything wrong with sentimental shows, but I can understand why Lifetime tries to draw in an audience by showing some of the silliness that ensues during all those hours. What I don’t understand is the point of the show … calling it hidden camera would be more appropriate than calling it reality TV.
And the real lesson the audience should walk away with is: don’t try that stuff in your own delivery room. Contracting women can be violent.
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Mar 21, 2011 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
