You have to admit it’s unusual to find a breech birth scene in a movie. It would be even more unusual had it come out of the vagina. No such luck. Oh well, caesarian section birth scenes are pretty rare too. How come I wonder? They should be accounting for almost 50% of birth scenes by now.
She’s Having A Section
John Hughes has given us some classic movies – Uncle Buck and Home Alone are two of my favorites. So what was he thinking when he made She’s Having A Baby? It’s supposed to be a romantic comedy, but there’s more weak drama than humour. Perhaps Hughes should have cast the trusty John Candy instead of Kevin Bacon.
So here’s a quick summary of the first 88 (of 100) minutes of the movie.
- Couple in love get married
- They get jobs (but we focus on his)
- They get a bigger house
- He has a recurring fantasy about another woman
- 4 years later they decide to have a baby
The final 12 minutes are about her having a baby. That’s a 2 minute montage for the full 9 months of pregnancy and another 10 minutes in the hospital for the birth. If the title of the movie is what encouraged you to watch it (like me) you’re going to feel pretty hard done by. Do not expect anything like knocked up.
So What About The Birth Scene?
This is a very distressing depiction of breech and any pregnant woman witnessing it will be mortified should their baby be diagnosed breech. Nevertheless, the birth scene towers over the rest of the movie as the most memorable and emotional part of the movie.
John Hughes is clearly under the impression that breech is the most serious birth complication possible. The number of panic stricken staff rushing into the delivery room once the situation is known is astonishing.
The poor husband is frog marched away before he has had chance to see his wife, despite pleading to the contrary. Sign of the times maybe, but most modern men would find it shocking.
Later, when the nurse is explaining breech to the husband (the baby is coming out backwards and the head is stuck!) her demeanor is dire. She couldn’t have been more morose even if the baby was dead, which of course is exactly what the husband assumes the outcome to be.
In the video clip below I’ve managed to go one better than John Hughes and get the birth scene down to a fraction over 5 minutes. The sentimental flashback scenes during the caesarian section have been trimmed, but unfortunately we lose most of the brilliant Kate Bush song – This Woman’s Work.
I only kept the final scene to show the complete lack of baby post birth even though it is apparently alive after getting it’s head stuck before any part of the baby had been born. We can only assume that they pushed the whole baby (minus the head) back into her uterus and then performed surgery.
Are All Men This Stupid?
Finally, can you believe my husband’s intpretation of the birth scene. He thought that the only reason she had a section was because the Ob was fed up with her screaming and making so much fuss! When she screams “I gotta get it out“, she actually means perform surgery on me it will be much quicker. If that’s the opinion of the husband of a homebirth midwife is there any hope for other men?
- Do you
Homebirth? Share this post with your friends - Recommend on Facebook
- Buzz it up
- Share with Stumblers
- Tweet about it
Related posts:
Two movies with birth scenes you should review (if you haven’t already) are “Look Who’s Talking” with Kirstie Alley & John Travolta, and “Fools Rush In,” with Matthew Perry & Salma Hayek. In both movies, the water breaks and they are instantly in full-throttle labor, just minutes away from birth. The saving grace for LWT is that at least they have a real newborn (played by whatever baby boy had just been born at the hospital when they were filming the scene) rather than a 3-m/o baby; plus the birth scene is fairly early in the movie so even if you hate the movie, you won’t have to watch very far. Although the scene in which Kirstie Alley’s milk comes in and she can’t wear any of her shirts is humorous as well.
Yes, Look Who’s Talking is one of my favorite absurd birth scenes too. I just happen to have the complete trilogy on my bedside table at this very moment. I was planning on adding it pretty soon.
Thanks for the tip off for fools rush in. I’ll try and track it down.
That is so weird. Did her membranes never release or bulge? Did no one see black meconium pouring out like toothpaste? Given that she is under medical care in hosp did she not have an u/sound and 75 internals during the birth?
I was thinking you should put up that scene in Jerry Maguire where they are all having lunch and the African American woman releases her membranes. They start grabbing up the toddlers and rushing off while throwing money at the table to pay the bill and she gives birth 10 secs after they get into the hosp room. Lots of drama.
is that an alien on her face?
Ha ha, yes it is very reminiscent of the scene from Alien where John Hurt gets impregnated by the alien. Similarly, they both have babies popping out of their stomachs. Well, poor John didn’t have much alternative. His bum perhaps?
It’s not a movie, but the final episode of Glee season 1 has a hilarious/absurd birth scene – waters breaking to birth in the same length of time of Bohemian Rhapsody.
lol, do actors and directors do NO research before they decide to make a film?!
I am home sick at the moment and decided to rent a few chick flicks, and for some reason grabbed The Backup Plan starring JLo. Now there are some interesting birth scenes in that! Including a homebirth scene, which seems to suggest that people who have homebirths are all crazy people which is reather traumatic to JLo And then a hospital birth which you don’t see much of but apparently is much more sensible. I am sure you will have many things to write about the whole movie…it is all so frustrating to watch – even the guys reaction to her being pregnant makes u want to slap him. I actually don’t know why I watched it the whole way through.
I think you’re assuming something with this one. A footling breech with cord issues could easily makes them rush like that. They’re hardly going to specify in a movie, and pre-internet, 99% of people wouldn’t have known half the birth terms or variations of breech or anything. So saying “it’s a cord prolapse” would have been goggbledegook to the audience.
But man, I’m glad I wasn’t giving birth then. I thought they were already in surgery when they were putting him in a gown and taking him to the operating room.
Gloria, you should talk to some birth professionals about it! Many midwives and Obs have had at least one surprise breech. Including the hilarious (possibly urban myth) story about the “tight 1cm” that was a baby butt.