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Nurturing Motherhood in A Baby Story--
Nurturing Motherhood: The Portrayal of Gender Roles and
Childbirth in "A Baby Story"
by
Erika Engstrom, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Box 455007
4505 Maryland Parkway
Las Vegas, NV 89154-5007
(702) 895-3639
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Submitted to the Commission on the Status of Women for presentation
at the 2000 Association for Education in Journalism and
Mass Communication convention, Phoenix, AZ
Nurturing Motherhood: The Portrayal of Gender Roles and
Childbirth in "A Baby Story"
Abstract
The author examines portrayal of gender roles and childbirth in The Learning Channel's "A Baby Story," a thirty-minute reality based television program that traces the story of couples anticipating the birth of their child. The show provides a medium for public discourse about childbirth while embodying several themes related to gender roles and childbirth in the 1990s, including conflicts experienced by women regarding careers and motherhood, and increased involvement of male partners in childcare.
Nurturing Motherhood: Gender Roles and Childbirth in "A Baby Story"
"Typically devalued as too personal or medically irrelevant, the stories of
birthing women have been silenced by society."
Helen Sterk and Karen Sterk1 (1993)
In September 1998, the television cable channel The Learning Channel introduced
a new show as part of its afternoon line-up of reality based programming. "A Baby Story" joined "A Wedding Story" in providing the cable outlet's predominantly female viewers an up-close and very personal account of everyday women giving birth. The show traces the "baby story" of real-life couples who are about to have a child, beginning with the story of how they met, when and how they found out "they" were pregnant (to use an egalitarian term), and ending with the birth itself-all in less than thirty minutes. A year after its debut, the Los Angeles-based program had become a nationwide hit for the Learning Channel among pregnant women and their spouses (Vrana, 1999).
Bonnie Dow (1996) contends, "To the extent that criticism teaches us something about television and how it works, it tells us something about the world and how it works" (p. 5). As a mass media artifact that focuses on the depiction of childbirth-a gendered topic by its very nature-"A Baby Story" offers those who study gender issues and the status of women in society a rich text to analyze from various perspectives. Here, the author examines the show's content in terms of its implicit messages concerning gender roles, and its nurturing of a cultural endorsement of motherhood as a life choice for women in the 1990s. To that end, this paper aims to discover how the program reflects current social beliefs about childbirth and the way women appearing in the program regard the choice to become mothers.
The Birth of "A Baby Story"
The trend started with "A Wedding Story," a half-hour documentary program which debuted on The Learning Channel (TLC) in 1996 (Span, 1999). In 1999, TLC expanded its reality based programming to include "A Baby Story," which follows the story of couple about to have a child. The "Baby Story" website describes the series as consisting of episodes that profiles different couples who have unique stories to tell about the upcoming birth of their child: "Parents-be-vary in terms of age, personality, circumstances and method of childbirth they've chosen-from traditional births to water births to adoption-but the stories all have the same ending_a happy, healthy baby!" ("A Baby Story," 2000).
In two different episodes each weekday, viewers are introduced to the already expectant parents at the beginning of the show. The mother- and father-to-be then describe their desire to have a child, any special medical problems they've encountered in trying to conceive, family backgrounds, and thoughts on having children. Then the couple is shown engaging in pre-birth activities, such as shopping for baby's things, special childbirth or exercise classes, baby showers, and visiting the doctor or midwife for a checkup. The main feature of the show is the birth of the child, from start of labor to delivery. A follow-up segment shows how the child is doing shortly after the birth. Narration accompanies only the introduction of the parents at the start of the program; the parents and/or family and friends tell the rest of story. Doctors and nurses also speak on camera, usually to report on the progress of the birth. Taping can stop at any time the couple or medical personnel request it. Several couples have dropped out due to medical problems, but few hospitals have turned the show, and its public relations potential, away (Vrana, 1999).
Prospective couples are invited to appear on the show both on the website and at the end of each episode. Besides the expectation of becoming parents, couples must live in the Los Angeles or Philadelphia areas (where the production companies, Pie Town Productions and Banyan Productions, respectively, are based) and be willing to share their experience on nationwide television. Couples' motivations include their involvement in the entertainment industry, desire to show the advantages of a particular birthing method, or to get the "ultimate birthing video for their child" (Vrana, 1999, p. S1).
The benefits of the reality genre include relatively inexpensive production costs and appeal to the target audience. TLC programming chief Chuck Gingold calls the ratings "phenomenal, especially for young women" (Span, 1999). Women between 18 and 34 make up the majority of "A Baby Story" viewers, according to Nielsen ratings (Vrana, 1999). A year after TLC switched to reality programming, which it calls "lifestyle documentaries," ratings among the 18 to 34 demographic increased 218 percent (Span, 1999). The strategy became so successful that TLC added "Reunion" (about real-life reunions) and, in fall of 1999, "A Dating Story" to its afternoon schedule.
Not surprisingly, as Span (1999) notes, "the Learning Channel afternoon block is thick with commercials for honeymoon cruises, yeast-infection medications and Gerber's baby products" (p. A01).
Childbirth Narrative as Public Discourse
While childbirth has been depicted in popular mass media for quite some time, such as in films and television entertainment programs, and in documentaries about human reproduction, "A Baby Story" offers its audience the personal stories of "normal" expectant couples exclusively, and in two different episodes each weekday. Its "show and tell" approach to birth appeals to women anticipating their own baby stories, as Debora Vrana notes: "Pregnant viewers say the show helps them learn about different birthing options and prepare for childbirth by demystifying the process and lifting the curtain on what really goes on at the hospital" (p. S1).
"A Baby Story" also serves as a venue for public discourse concerning the narrative of childbirth, which Helen Sterk and Karen Sterk (1993) call "the most intimate of female language." In "Birthing: Women Owning Their Own Stories" (1993), written shortly after both had given birth, they discuss the nature of women's stories about the childbirth experience in terms of its traditionally private and clinical perspectives. Notably, the story of childbirth stays hidden from public discourse; in American culture, "this story largely remains private, assumed to be personal, perhaps told friend to friend, sister to sister, mother to daughter, or daughter to daughter" (p. 438). As a story of "pain, blood, and emotion," the authors add, "this story, in all its personal variety, is not sought out" (p. 438). The value of "A Baby Story," in this perspective, lies in its ability to bring childbirth realistically to the viewing public, though that public consists mostly of women (Span, 1999; Vrana, 1999).
In documenting childbirth in the 1990s, the program also adds a personal, affective tone. Sterk and Sterk contend that "Much of the popular literature on pregnancy and birth issues from a male medical model that views reproduction as an illness best handled technologically" (1993, p. 433). This language, they assert, assumes scientific expertise, and thus, the woman giving birth becomes part of a linear process "measured in centimeters of dilation which cannot be seen by the woman" (p. 433).
Though the medical aspect of birth presents itself in most episodes of "A Baby Story," the cinema verite treatment of birth process itself presents the birthing mothers' experience. Viewers can see her pain during labor and delivery. They also experience, vicariously, the feelings of the couple when the child is born. As a viewer of several episodes before starting this research, the author could not help but experience an emotional reaction as new mothers and fathers beheld their child for the first time. In showing how the soon-to-be parents act and react during delivery scenes, the show contradicts past narratives of childbirth as told publicly. Regarding the show from this approach, it offers women, in a sense, an outlet to tell their stories publicly: the mother plays the central role in the story up until the baby makes its "debut."
Upholding or Modifying Gender Roles?
While a "A Baby Story" offers benefits in making more open the discussion of childbirth and serves as a means by which pregnant women can learn about the realities of delivery, it also provides those who study women's issues in the mass media provocative subject matter regarding the portrayal of motherhood and gender roles. For example, the fact that the show exists and has found success among a female audience
evidences the cultural value for and approval of the choice to have children, at least for women who watch. In absence of a program that features the personal stories of those who have chosen not to have children, or cannot have children, one can argue that a certain hegemonic, or dominant cultural perspective already exists in U.S. society. One can see the program as supporting traditional gender expectations, in that women are expected to have and adore children, and find interest in domestic concerns (Wood, 1999).
On the other hand, the program might serve to contradict traditional gender roles, specifically regarding the role of men in childbirth and childcare. Historically, men (expect for physicians) have kept outside this aspect of women's experience. As Allen Johnson (1997) notes,
It's easy for men to see themselves as outsiders to the mystery of life
and reproduction-scientists trying to tease nature's secrets from her;
male gynecologists and obstetricians trying to control the life process,
tribal males excluded form women's sacred mysteries; or modern Lamaze
birth coaches trying to help without getting in the way (p. 182).
Johnson adds, "In fact, men do report feeling left out of family life and other things close to the life process" (p. 182).
Julia Wood (1999), in summarizing how mass media treats gender, surmises that "because cultural ideals promoted by media are rigid, the limited views of each gender's abilities and opportunities, which may discourage us from venturing into areas outside of those that media define for our sex" (p. 319). "A Baby Story" affords viewers a look at the extent to which fathers (or other male significant others) participate in and observe the birthing process. As a contrast to the Hollywood "pacing father" stereotype, the program may reflect the current realities of childbirth in terms of men's changing roles in childcare and increasingly egalitarian viewpoints among men.
Cultivating the Motherhood Ideal: Prime-Time and Daytime
Bonnie Dow (1996), in her book Prime-Time Feminism, notes that "Television has long glorified motherhood_" (p. 189). She notes that the tendency, especially in television entertainment programs, of using the hegemonic emphasis of viewing women through the lens of motherhood normalizes women's traditional caretaking roles. To a large extent in U.S. society, even in the wake of the feminist movement, a woman's identity revolves around her motherhood status. Relevant to the current study, Dow examined two particular aspects of motherhood as depicted in television within the past decade: made for TV movies that "glorified" motherhood and TV character Murphy Brown's decision to become a single mother.
During the early 1990s, the trend in television movies, whose audience consisted primarily of women, centered for a time on the "baby wars"-custody battles over children between surrogate mothers and the legal parents. These movies stemmed from the "Baby M" case, in which a surrogate mother refused to give up the child she carried for a professional couple. Even TV Guide, in 1993, commented on such movies that depicted the legal troubles of mothers who tried to retain custody of their children under difficult circumstances. Because the audiences for most TV movies were female, concluded Dow (1996), "it is likely that the appeal of these movies is as much linked to their romanticization of motherhood as it is linked to increasing angst about the welfare of children" (p. 189).
Similarly, television further romanticized motherhood as evident in the series "Murphy Brown," when Murphy became a single mother. Indeed, the narratives of Murphy's pregnancy, and that of Lucy Ricardo in "I Love Lucy" in 1952-53 were "arguably the most spectacular American media presentations of pregnancy of the last fifty years" (Davies & Smith, 1998). Though it was supposed to be a feminist show about a modern career woman, "Murphy Brown"'s general message ultimately became that "a successful career cannot be the basis for a satisfying life for women" (Dow, 1996, p. 159). The hegemony carried especially by this particular program promoted the notion that a woman's ultimate fulfillment is motherhood.
Regarding television's influence in shaping audience attitudes and perceptions, especially in terms of how it portrays motherhood researchers such as Nancy Buerkel-Rothfuss and Sandra Mayes (1981) and Mary Strom Larson (1996), examined the cultivation effects of daytime soap operas. While Buerkel-Rothfuss and Mayes found support for cultivation effects among college students (heavy soap opera viewers tended to hold distorted views about 'real world' aspects portrayed in such programming), Larson looked specifically at such effects regarding adolescents' perceptions of single motherhood. She found that soap opera portrayals of single mothers often contradicted reality: single mothers on soap operas seemed to have no trouble with childcare or coping with jobs, and had supportive male friends. Indeed, single mothers on such shows were shown as having enhanced social lives because they had children. Larson concludes:
Young girls who are susceptible to the images they see on
television may well assume that single motherhood has many
desirable consequences-in particular, having a healthy baby,
one's own apartment, a good job and affluent lifestyle with
an active social life and male friends who will help with
childcare (1996, p. 108).
Additionally, Larson surmises, when considering effects on boys who may watch such programming, distorted portrayals of single mothers could infer that fathering a child carries with it few responsibilities.
The implications of Larson's (1996) study particularly apply to "A Baby Story" in that its current audience, young women, might also include adolescent girls. The program ends with an update of the newborn's progress, but does not follow the parents as they deal with caring for the baby on a daily basis. The joy of having a child is not accompanied by the time-intensive responsibilities of parenthood. As a reality based program, its content could potentially affect heavy viewers' perceptions of motherhood, whether the depictions of childbirth contained in the program result in favorable or unfavorable views, or even distorted ideas of motherhood. Indeed, even for its adult viewers, "A Baby Story" might influence their decisions regarding life choices and attitudes.
Research Question
In their reader, Feminist Television Criticism (1997), Charlotte Brundson, Julie D-Acci, and Lynn Spigel note that the dominant genres and topics of feminist television analysis have included "soaps, telenovelas, serials, sitcoms, housewives, 'new women,' heterosexual and lesbian romances, female audiences, and domesticity" (p. 2). "A Baby Story" breaks away from typical television genres and serves as an ideal way to find out about the world through its portrayal of childbirth and the messages present and not present regarding motherhood. In her analysis of TLC's "A Wedding Story," Erika Engstrom (1999) pointed out that as does other television programming, that show "cultivates a certain view of the world," "in a way that we can consider as more valid than other television programs, such as those that are entertainment-oriented and essentially creations of Hollywood script writers, because of its basis in reality" (p. 19).
Similarly, "A Baby Story" holds the same purpose, in providing its viewers a portrait of modern childhood, and motherhood, that comes from the real world.
Not much more than a decade ago, Nancy Signorielli (1989) concluded that television, up until that time, presented images of women at odds with reality; it had not changed very much since the 1960s, even though society had seen numerous changes. She asked, "How much greater_could these changes be if television were more reflective of the actual status and role of both women and men in the United States?" (p. 359). The research question of this paper stems from Signiorelli's inquiry: How does "A Baby Story" depict the realities of childbirth in terms of gender roles and demographic attributes?
Analysis
Ten episodes of "A Baby Story" (the equivalent of one week's worth of programming) will be described. These were chosen randomly from a sample of 48 episodes recorded between August and December, 1999. The author acknowledges that the episodes described here may not qualify as truly representative of all "Baby Story" programs run during that period. However, the taking of a qualitative approach in answering the research question allows for greater discussion of particular episodes as compared to a quantitatively based content analysis. Thus, the current study should be regarded as exploratory in nature, with its main goal to provide a "snapshot" of the key elements present in "A Baby Story." For the episodes discussed here, the author recorded the following information: marital status of parents, mention of parents' careers, parents' reasons for wanting children, other children, race, special aspects of the pregnancy, pre-birth activities or special rituals (such as a baby shower), birth venue, presence of obstetrician or midwife, who was else was present at the delivery, type of birth, and involvement of male partner during the delivery.
Demographics
Of the ten couples, eight were white, one was Hispanic, and one was biracial (white mother and African-American father). Nine of the couples were married, and one couple lived together. Six of the couples were first-time parents, four already had children (three couples had two children, and one couple had one child). Three of the couples especially made a point of saying the wife was older than the husband. All appeared to be middle-class.
Fathers' occupation was not mentioned in three of the episodes; for the others, they were: Navy, teacher, actor, engineer, singer/songwriter, camp counselor, and architect. Mothers' occupation was not mentioned in two episodes (one used to be a Navy reservist, one had had an unspecified job); for the others, they were: teacher, actor/writer, engineer, childcare teacher, camp counselor, TV host, freelance marketing consultant.
Special Aspects of Pregnancy
Regarding the mothers' current pregnancy, one mother had gestational diabetes, and one mother had broken her foot shortly before labor. Five couples mentioned problems with past pregnancies. These included infertility, ectopic pregnancies (resulting in miscarriages), miscarriages due to immune system problems (cured by immunotherapy). One mother experienced severe post-partum depression after the birth of her first child. Two couples did not mention any problems or special concerns regarding the current pregnancy.
Pre-birth Activities and Rituals
All couples were shown engaging in shared activity before the birth, most commonly some sort of childcare training or childbirth preparation, such as check ups (in two episodes), infant and child CPR class (two episodes), childbirth class (two episodes), diaper-changing lesson (one episode), and baby food preparation lesson (one episode). Five episodes featured some kind of celebratory event, such as baby shower (three episodes; two included all-female baby showers, one in which the father also attended), child's birthday (one episode), and bris (Jewish baby circumcision ceremony) (shown at the conclusion of the show during the baby "update" segment) (one episode). Couples who already had children tended to engage in family activities; one family went swimming, one spend "family home evening" together, one couple took their young son on a tour of the hospital to prepare him for his sibling's birth, and one mother took her daughter to a craft store to buy materials to make family t-shirts to commemorate the impending birth.
In several episodes, the mother was shown doing things by herself; one mother worked out at the gym with her personal trainer; one went to a beauty spa, and one attended a mothers' support group. Two mothers were shown at their workplace; one taught a class at the childcare center (childcare teacher), and one taped a television show (television host). None of the fathers were shown at their workplace, or shown in situations by themselves.
Birth Venue and Delivery
All ten episodes featured hospital births. Eight of the doctors delivering the baby were male, two were female. Regarding type of delivery, two were caesarean sections (one scheduled, one emergency), and eight were vaginal (three were chemically induced). Pain medication, in the form of an epidural, was mentioned or given in six of the births. One mother had held out for a natural delivery, but eventually opted for the epidural.
During labor, in all episodes medical personnel gave an on-camera progress report of the mother using medical jargon ("dilate," "centimeters," "epidural," "pitocin," for example). Mothers rarely spoke about their pain directly into the camera. However, they were shown either in pain during labor, or while giving birth (several screamed or yelled). Complications occurred in four episodes: one in which the position of the baby had to be corrected by the doctor, on in which the mother's water had to be broken by the doctor, one in which an emergency caesarian had to be performed, and one in which the baby had to be take to a warmer due to respiratory problems. All were resolved by the time of delivery or end of the episode.
In all episodes, the mothers' male partner accompanied her into the delivery or operating room, either serving as birthing coach or simply holding her hand. In all but one episode, the father accompanied her to the hospital (he arrived before her scheduled caesarian). In four episodes, other family members or friends were present during either the labor or delivery.
Gender Roles: Women Combining Career and Family
The overt depiction of women in traditional gender roles were inferred visually in three episodes during the introduction section of the program when mothers talked on camera about issues surrounding their pregnancies. One mother talked while making cookies, one was polishing silver, and one was using a sewing machine. These scenarios implied, at least, the domestic interests of these women.
Regarding the professional lives of the mothers-to-be, three episodes stand out as exemplifying conflicts or concerns between work and family life, as described below:
Switching Provider Roles. Barb and Rob already had two children. They had "customized" their lives to spend time with their family. Earlier in the marriage, Barb served in the family provider role, though she does not say what her occupation was. They had agreed that Rob, a singer/songwriter, would take care of the children full-time. However, once Rob was able to support the family financially, Barb quit her job and became the childcare provider. Rob, who goes on tour, spends as much time as possible with the family. Family life served as the major theme of their episode; they are shown going swimming with the kids, and Rob is shown interacting with the children and the newborn baby.
Keeping an Active Career Life. Patty and Brad already had a two-year-old son. While Brad's occupation is not mentioned, Patty talks at length about her difficulties in switching from a full-time career to motherhood. When her son was born, she quit her career to become a full-time mother, but decided it wasn't for her. She went into business for herself as a marketing consultant, so that if she didn't want to work, she didn't have to. Patty also became involved with a mothers' support group, where she could talk with other mothers about their childcare experiences. The couple spend a great deal of time engaging in activities designed to help their young son cope adjust to life with the baby.
Being Pregnant in Show Business. Wendy and Virgil, her partner, lived together for a year before Wendy became pregnant. Wendy has a career in the entertainment industry; she is the co-host of "How'd They Do That?," another reality-based television show. The episode features her at work taping a show. She is shown at a wardrobe fitting, to see how her new on-air outfits hide her pregnancy. She discusses that the producers, who happen to be men, want to make sure she isn't shown as being pregnant, and concludes that that's the way it is in the television industry. The producers are shown in the control room during the taping, discussing how Wendy can be lighted and positioned so that her pregnancy is not obvious. In her voice-over narration, Wendy jokingly comments that "it's baby discrimination." This episode provides a behind-the-scenes look at how pregnancy is treated by those in show business, in an almost anti-woman attitude. The reasons for hiding Wendy's pregnancy are not given by the producers, though they give quite a bit of attention to hiding it. One wonders if the reason lies in the fact that Wendy is not married to the father of her child, or if it can be attributed to aesthetic concerns.
Gender Roles: Involvement of Male Partner
Fathers talked at length about their parental roles in all the episodes. Generally, they all looked forward to becoming fathers (again, for some) and being involved in their children's lives. Mothers also commented that they thought their partners would be/had been good fathers.
All fathers were present during the delivery of the baby. While some took more active roles during the birth, such as serving as Lamaze coaches, others showed their support for the mother by massaging her back or feet, or holding their hand (in one case until his thumb turned blue). In four episodes, fathers are shown cutting the umbilical cord. In one episode, he is shown shooting footage with his own video camera. Fathers are also shown holding the baby after the birth, and changing the baby's diaper, indicating, to some degree, they hold egalitarian views about childcare.
Discussion
This exploratory study examined the gendered elements of a reality based program that serves as an endorsement for parenthood. Its very existence and ratings success demonstrates a societal approval and even encouragement for couples (heterosexual, that is) to have children. As a program that originates from the "real world," as opposed to other television genres, it also serves as a reflection, to an extent, of how people in modern U.S. society experience childbirth. This portrayal, however, is qualified by the demographic make-up of the couples appearing in the program. Based on the sample described here, "A Baby Story" mostly features white, middle-class married couples (who live in the Los Angeles area).
To the extent that the program provides a forum or outlet for the public discourse of childbirth, it allows women to "tell" their childbirth stories while at the same time reinforcing the traditional medical frame of childbirth narrative. While viewers can see the mother in labor and giving birth (her "side" of the story), they get the "scoop" on the mother's progress from nurses and doctors, who use medical jargon to describe the status of the delivery. Sterk and Sterk's (1993) description of modern childbirth closely matches how viewers see it in the program:
Women now give birth in hospitals, monitored by machines during
every stage of the labor and delivery, managed by pitocin drips,
epidurals, saddle blocks, caesarean sections, and forceps, and coached
by their male 'significant others' who have gone to Lamaze
originated by a French male physician (p. 433).
In terms of the gender roles of the women and men about to become parents, the show serves as a virtual microcosm of society, replete with representations of women who give up careers to become mothers and men who embrace fatherhood and childcare with gusto. The mention or absence of mention of parents' careers serves as a particularly compelling aspect of episode narratives. It seems that, to a large degree, women and men's identity apart from parenthood does not matter. Interestingly, none of the fathers in the programs, except for Rob, the singer/songwriter father of two, discussed or mentioned any conflicts between their jobs and family responsibilities.
This conflict between career and family seemed most prominent among the women in the program. The treatment of the pregnant TV host, Wendy, especially illustrates a bias in the television industry against showing a woman who is obviously pregnant. The fact that Wendy, while commenting that it was unfortunate that her pregnancy had to be concealed, went along with the male producers in covering up her condition on camera shows that she had no real power as a woman. The ongoing struggle of Pam, the freelance marketing consultant who found full-time motherhood incompatible with her goals, to balance the responsibilities of motherhood with her need to continue her career illustrates the ambivalent views of women in the post-feminist 1990s.
The programs studied here placed a notable emphasis on the fathers-to-be, in terms of their potential parental abilities. All of them expressed a desire to become parents and involve themselves in the day-to-day care of their newborn child. Indeed, the recurrent image of fathers changing their babies' diapers further promotes this attitude which contradicts Johnson's observation that men feel detached from the intimacies of childbirth and childcare (1997). In helping to break traditional stereotypes of fathers who remained apart from the daily responsibilities of childcare, "A Baby Story" helps to cultivate a more egalitarian approach. However, the viewer does not see how these fathers continue their involvement after the episode's ending.
In that the cultivation hypothesis posits that heavy television viewers tend to hold worldviews that reflect those presented in television programming they watch, "A Baby Story" seems to presents the mostly white, middle-class world that Engstrom (1999) describes in her analysis of TLC's "A Wedding Story." One can surmise that this population contains people who (1) have a desire to be on television and (2) don't mind being recorded on videotape while giving birth. In all the episodes discussed here, parents expressed how much they wanted the unborn child. This of course may exclude instances in which a pregnancy is unexpected or unwanted. It is doubtful that an unwanted teenage pregnancy (the stereotypical "girl in trouble") would be featured on "A Baby Story."
Similarly, the program always ends with the birth of a healthy child, a conclusion explicitly "advertised" on the show's website and in its news coverage (Vrana, 1999). If complications occurred, they were downplayed by the medical personnel and resolved by the end of the show. For viewers who have no experience with children or childbirth, the way in which "A Baby Story" portrays childbirth may leave them with the impression that all babies are born healthy.
In the show, labor and delivery seem to last no more than ten minutes. Though the viewer sees shots of a clock to indicate the passage of time, the viewer gets no real sense of how long labor can actually last, nor a real sense of how long and to what degree a woman in labor experiences pain. Heavy viewers might come away with the perception that giving birth presents no intense, prolonged physical challenge. Additionally, the physicality of pregnancy is not addressed; the show introduces pregnant mothers who are only a few weeks away from their due date. The obvious joy expressed by both mothers and fathers when the child is born also adds to the positive image of childbirth. In this sense, "A Baby Story" may foster in some viewers a desire to have children, when perhaps they aren't prepared to take on the enormous time and devotion that motherhood requires.
As reality based programming, "A Baby Story" still does not truly reflect what happens when a woman gives birth. For instance, the afterbirth is not shown, nor is the experience of the mother when she recovers from a caesarean section. Of course, these aspects would not make "good television." One could argue that the program may actually be a disservice to young women, especially, who are still finding their identity in a society that sends them mixed messages regarding life choices.
The array of narrative elements presented in "A Baby Story" lends itself to a number of future research ideas. Obvious among these include: a quantitative content analysis of a larger sample of episodes, field research investigating how producers choose prospective parents and which scenes editors choose to censor or include, audience research, and cultivation effects of the program. Researchers also could focus on the advertising surrounding the program. The products featured most often during the ten episodes examined here show obvious associations with the domestic sphere: diapers, diaper rash ointment, soap, food seasoning, toilet cleanser, vacuum cleaners, faucets, furniture, and life and auto insurance.
Future researchers could also use a longitudinal approach to investigating changes in how the program depicts gender roles, and in changes in gender roles themselves. For example, in what settings does the show situate mothers and fathers-to-be? In some of the episodes examined here, women appear cooking and polishing silver, scenes that seem to reinforce traditional gender roles. Researchers could investigate how the program incorporates or ignores cultural values concerning gender.
Given the recent media attention to the birth of children to non-traditional, non-heterosexual couples such as rock musician Melissa Etheridge and her partner Julie Cypher, researchers also could examine the evidence of cultural lag and acceptance of alternative modes of parenthood in such programs as "A Baby Story." Because the television industry depends on ratings, which in turn measure the acceptance of a program's content, researchers could see how the realities of parenthood in modern society align with program executives' sensibilities.
Conclusion
Feminist scholar E. Ann Kaplan, who became a single mother in 1968, comments in her preface to Motherhood and Representation: The Mother in Popular Culture and Melodrama (1992):
I sometimes envy friends who become mothers in 1991; in many senses,
it all seems so much easier for them. Lovers or partners now often share in the labors and pleasures of child rearing; society accepts women who combine motherhood and careers, at least, if not open sex; free enterprise has made available all kinds of economical devices and toys that make life with the baby happier, easier, more pleasant all around (p. xii).
"A Baby Story" in some ways supports Kaplan's observations, especially concerning the role of male partners. In other ways, however, the conflicts that women still face regarding finding fulfillment through their career and their role of mother remain part of women's experience in today's society.
Regardless of the inherent gender role messages contained in the program, the fact that it tells the stories of at least some women's childbirth experiences advances the voice of women in general. As Sterk and Sterk (1993) contend: "The stories of our grandmothers, mothers, sisters, friends, and ourselves must be told and remembered, for they add to our culture's stock of knowledge, our sense of what is real and they do honor to the human beings involved" (p. 399).
Note
1 To acknowledge the work of authors of both sexes, first names are used at first mention in the text, following the example of Ramona Rush and Autumn Grubb-Swetnam in "Feminist Approaches," in An Integrated Approach to Communication Theory and Research, edited by Michael Salwen and Don Stacks (1996, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum).
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