"The Doctors" TV show – a disservice to women

Posted by melodieshouse on September 18, 2008

I watched the Dr. Phil spinoff show “The Doctors” on 9/10 b/c it was an episode on hospital vs. homebirth. What a sham that show was! First off, the format of the program does not allow sufficient time to explore any topic in any real depth – you get sound bites and brief video segments in between commercials. Second, they never intended to lay out all options, they wanted to use the invited couple to sensationalize homebirth and scare people for ratings. Third, some gross misinformation was presented.

They invited a couple on the show in which the woman was 24 wks along and they were seeking a natural, unmedicated birth but were undecided over whether to choose hospital or homebirth. They wanted a natural delivery. The OB on the show, Dr. Lisa Masterson, kept going on about all the things that could go wrong with disastrous results if they happened at home. She talked about and demonstrated shoulder dystocia and when the mom-to-be asked her what percentage of cases do complications like these occur, she said, “10-15% depending on the population.” She might have meant ALL complications that require intervention, but her answer seemed to apply to shoulder dystocia, which would be a GROSS exaggeration of statistical fact. According to http://www.shoulderdystociainfo.com/, it’s more like 0.5-1.5% of all deliveries. Dr. Masterson’s emphasis on the word “CRASH” referring to a rapid fetal heart deceleration was very unreassuring too, to say the least.

Dr. Masterson said she didn’t care if the woman wanted to walk about freely or even swing from the ceiling to deliver as long as she could monitor that the mom and baby were okay. Hmm, I wonder what hosptial she practices at – that sounds nice but in reality I think you’d be hard-pressed to find an OB open to whatever a mom wants to do in the confines of a hospital – and she knows that, regardless of her personal feelings. And she knows hospital policies often dictate doing certain interventions (continuous EFM, IV’s) routinely whether needed or not. I took her remarks as just lip service.

Now Dr. Jim Sears, pediatrician son of Dr. William and Martha Sears of attachment parenting fame, did get in that four of his siblings were born at home and that homebirth can be safe for low-risk women with a professional in attendance. He also posited the option of a birth center birth, to which they played a segment of a woman (who was also in the audience) who gave birth in a birth center to a baby with enlarged kidneys, a congenital defect that was missed by multiple ultrasounds. She made a point to say her picture-perfect birth became a nightmare when the baby was transferred and had to immediately have tubes placed in him and receive dangerous but life-saving surgery. His kidney problem had NOTHING TO DO WITH BEING BORN IN A BIRTH CENTER AT THE HANDS OF A MIDWIFE!! PERIOD!!!!! THE OUTCOME WOULD HAVE BEEN EXACTLY THE SAME IF HE WAS ALREADY AT THE HOSPITAL WHEN HE WAS BORN!!! It was just a shock effect story. They played one segment of a woman who used hypnobirthing to deliver safely at home – it wasn’t even 30 sec. long.

The pregnant women asked Dr. Masterson is asking OB’s about homebirth was a good idea because OB’s are biased and don’t want to lose patients (I halfway wondered if this couple was for real or planted). Dr. Masterson said (of course) no, OB’s are concerned 1st and foremost with the health and safety of women and their babies. What would you expect her to say on TV before millions?

There were no midwives on the show. I’ll say that again. THERE WERE NO MIDWIVES ON THE SHOW.

I feel really bad for the young couple, assuming they were for real. They seemed to be pretty sharp people and I hope they realized they received no real help from being on the show. I sincerely hope and pray they talked to some midwives and visited a birth center (or two, if their geographic area is so lucky) and did a lot more reading before making their decision.

The only reason I watched the show was because I’d heard the talk in the blogosphere about a homebirth segment coming up. I had no idea what to expect from the show. But this show confirmed why I don’t watch daytime TV, or even much TV at all for that matter. They call it programming for a reason. I’m not too worried about the image of homebirth being sullied because in my mind, if anyone thinks they’re getting useful information from those shows, they’re just another of the sheeple. Sheeple don’t think for themselves and aren’t interested in taking charge of their bodies or their healthcare anyway. Let me stop here before I jump off on how the sheeple fall hook, line, and sinker for everything Big Pharma has to offer.