Infertility, Pregnancy and Childbirth in the Media

OR: Shit that has made me "Claire Danes Cry" on my couch

Say what you will, but that woman
*commits* to her ugly sob.

Maybe I'm just more sensitive to it lately, but I've been noticing a lot more infertility, pregnancy and childbirth story-lines in everyone's favorite escape from the crushing realities of their lives: television and movies.

What follows in the good, the bad and the ugly of what I've encountered.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

1. Robin will never Pole Vault
   This episode of How I Met Your Mother marks the first time I found myself needing a snot rag on my couch because tv had gotten "too real man, too real!!".  I thought it did a fairly good job of portraying what getting the diagnosis of infertility feels like and I liked that they explored what it would feel like even if you never thought you wanted children.  Though I can't imagine what could have happened to result in her so quickly being told she'd never be able to have children. Did her uterus fall out? Was no one available to put it back in?  Even then, I'm sure someone could have figured something out...

2. The Walking Dead's Guide to a More Traumatic Child Birth
   
   OR: Birthing your probable zombie baby from within... and without... and all over the boiler room floor.  Brought to you by the makers of Fine, Magnum Epidurals - "Even if its a zombie-baby, you'll be too gorked to notice!"
   
   
   Ok, so using childbirth as a vehicle for scares in the horror genre is nothing new and a psychologist (or me when I'm feeling less snarky and more educated) could probably have a field day with it, but I had some pretty significant issues with Lori's birthing experience.  I think it went something along the lines of screaming, "PUSH?  BITCH YOU'VE HAD 1/2 OF A CONTRACTION. SIT DOWN AND LET SOMEONE GET SOME HELP!"  at my television.  My sister made the interesting point that perhaps Lori "wanted out".  But I got to believe she had a better option than suicide by traumatic childbirth.  Overall I found the whole experience pretty damn exploitative.
   



"don't you understand, there's an infertile woman in America who already idolizes
and identifies with us! How can we let a chance like this pass by?!"

3. Amy and Rory ca...oh god... oh god, amy and rory...**sob**
   Attempting to air all the grievances done unto the fans of Stephen Moffat's television programs by Stephen Moffat himself would take up a lifetime's worth of festivuses.  But this is his masterpiece of emotional manipulation, as far as I'm concerned.  I could not love Amy & Rory more and watching them go through what we were going through and have it tear apart their relationship was just about as traumatic as television could get for me.
   
   Then this happened, and I felt a little better.