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Prematurity on TV: Black-ish Season Finale

10 Sunday Sep 2017

Posted by frannyritchie in Delivery, Early Days

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Tags

babies, black-ish, high risk pregnancy, pre-eclampsia, preemies, preemies in the media, pregnancy, pregnancy in the media, scary pregnancy, television

I’ve seen a few episodes of the American sitcom Black-ish, which will be returning for season4 on 3 October (in the US. in the UK, who knows? I saw the finale at 10 am in the morning on ITV. I think.).

Season 3 had centred on the late-in-life pregnancy of the female lead, Rainbow, and the finale gave a mostly-accurate depiction of a sudden, scary turn: she developed pre-eclampsia and delivered the baby two months early (so about 32 weeks gestation).

I wrote about prematurity as depicted by Pampers  a couple months ago – in general, I would say, pop culture doesn’t have much of a track record addressing prematurity. Which makes sense: prematurity is not telegenic. Preemies can be ugly or scary or just a bit too….fetal…to be comfortable to look at. They are tiny and fragile and hooked up to all sorts of crap.

Black-ish did a pretty great job with the maternity stuff; everything they said about pre-eclampsia was correct, and the parents’ fear and panic was pretty on point too. But then the show was stuck with a premature baby that they had to deal with, and that’s where I thought the show went off the rails a bit.

First of all, that baby was gorgeous. Small, but chubby. Not hooked up to any breathing apparatus. No long lines, or lines of any description. No incubator. Just a few monitoring devices so we knew this was Not a Normal Baby.

I mean, I understand. I thought Daphne was gorgeous straight out of the womb. In the first picture ever taken of her, she has one eye just cracked with Not Impressed expression that remains her trademark seven months later. Watching from the operating table, I saw the nurse hold up my tiny 2 lb baby and I knew that things couldn’t be that dire or they wouldn’t be hoisting her up like Simba for photo ops. But really, to the untrained eye, she looked pretty raw. I had that picture printed but my mother suggested I not send it to my grandmother. I look at it and think, ‘damn, my baby is a fighter’ but in retrospect I can see how other people would just react with alarm.

Preemies are alarming. But the show could easily have circumvented the need for a close-up by showing an incubator (also called an isolette), or by simply reporting on his condition. Instead, they made it look like the scary part was over. Anyone watching would see that baby and think ‘oh, that’s not so bad, he looks fine.’

I realise I am complaining about a sitcom, and I shouldn’t hold them to documentary standards, but the experience of having a premature baby doesn’t end a couple days postpartum. The fact that the girls were early is still very much with us seven months later (five months adjusted), and will likely stay with us forever, in the form of soft teeth of poor vision or attention or behavioural disorders. We are very lucky that the biggest thing they faced in the NICU was ‘smallness’ – they were just really, really tiny. Daphne was so small that, for a long time, she kept cutting off her own airway when she moved her head. She just didn’t have the strength/maturity not to.

September is NICU Awareness Month. The show originally aired this spring, but it seems fitting to me to talk about it now, after it ran in the UK. Most NICU babies are, in the grand scheme of things, Just Fine. But they are fine because they have the benefit of an incredible amount of care and support and science: they NEED incubators and long lines and various unpleasant, humming machines, and for a television show to skip that part of it – while demonstrating the very accurate fear and anxiety of the parents – is to do NICU babies, and neonatology in general, a disservice.

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Things I learned from British television

10 Monday Oct 2011

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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Tags

Made In Chelsea, reality shows, television

My parents, who are apparently miracle workers when it comes to getting their children settled in new houses, came this weekend.  I’ll post some more about their visit soon, but first, things I’ve learned from not leaving the house:

– Ian and I are on the vanguard of British TV (telly) technology, because we have fancy cable (with DVR!).  The installation guy said “You’re American? Well, then you must know all about this!”

– The only people who love American crime shows more than Americans are Brits.  At any given time, there are five or six American crime shows viewable on our non-premium cable (if you throw in the channels we don’t get, the number probably doubles). I don’t know if the shows are reruns, or they somehow ended up with a huge backlog, or what.  In addition, there is an entire channel devoted exclusively to British crime shows.

I can’t confirm, but I suspect “Motorway Patrol” is a cop show, too.  Its also the only non-American show on the channel guide….hurray for American cultural hegemony?

– “Friends” is still going strong here: on the order or four or five episodes a day. In fact, there seem to be virtually no scripted shows that are home-grown.  There have been a bazillion seasons of Big Brother, and some variation on Jersey Shore and a make-under show in its 4th season, but very few English primetime shows that could be classified as sitcoms or dramas.

– But speaking of reality shows, “Made in Chelsea,” the British answer to “Laguna Beach/The Hills/The City/Whatever Crap They’re Calling It Now,” is hilarious.  Here is a quote from the Mirror review:

“In Chelsea the truth is more fabulous than fiction…”

So purred Caggie Dunlop at the start of the first episode of reality aristo-soap Made In Chelsea.”

The only episode I’ve seen culminated in Millie discovering that Hugo had cheated on her, throwing a drink in his face and storming out of the Monte Carlo-themed party.  Seriously, y’all, this is bad TV taken to the next level.  If you don’t believe me, see below:

SERIOUSLY.  He ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE THAT.

Creepy, ugly image courtesy UnrealityTV.com

And here’s one of the show’s villians (his name is Spencer, which is apparently a prereq for these sorts of shows):

I mean seriously. SERIOUSLY.

So I haven’t decided if I’ll watch it again, but its absolutely hilarious, and I’m unemployed, so I probably will.  Its called an “aristo-soap,” for crying out loud.

– I’m sure I’m missing some relevant information about UK television.  Please fill me in on anything you feel I should know (bonus: comments make me feel popular).

Stay tuned for more high-brown observations about English culture, including some photos of my neighborhood and my almost-unpacked (ish) house.  Lots of excitement on the horizon, friends.

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