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   From: ev@aol.com   
      
   Lifetime’s new reality show is delivering some controversy   
   before it’s even been born. The network announced Wednesday a   
   new series titled Born in the Wild that chronicles pregnant   
   women giving birth outdoors, unassisted by doctors.   
      
   “What happens when the craziest experience of a woman’s life   
   becomes truly wild, and soon-to-be parents decide to take on an   
   unassisted birth in the outdoors?” asks the press release. “Born   
   in the Wild will document the journeys of young, expectant   
   parents who have chosen to give birth ‘in the wild.’”   
      
   It’s certainly a head-turning TV hook. But one obstetrician says   
   we already know what happens when women give birth in the wild,   
   and it isn’t good. “I understand everybody wants to believe we   
   overmedicalize pregnancy and that it’s a natural process.   
      
   But it’s a natural process that historically has caused an   
   extraordinary loss of life,” says Ron Jaekle, MD, a maternal-   
   fetal medicine specialist at the University of Cincinnati   
   Medical Center and the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Fetal   
   Center.   
      
   “There is not a single piece of literature that we had to read   
   growing up that didn’t talk about somebody’s mother or wife   
   dying in childbirth, it was part of the national vocabulary. In   
   the 1900s, a women died for every 1,000 babies born in the   
   United States. Today it’s .1 for every 1,000.”   
      
   The Lifetime series is taking precautions to help ensure the   
   safety of the mother and child. No first-time mothers will be   
   allowed to participate on the show and all participants will   
   have a clean bill of health. A trained emergency professional   
   will be on site. And while the couple will choose the birthing   
   location, the production will remain within a certain radius of   
   a hospital should complications arise.   
      
   “I’m not surprised an OB-GYN would say that [but] we’re taking   
   extreme precautions to make sure the mothers and the babies are   
   safe,” says Eli Lehrer, Lifetime’s senior VP and head of   
   nonfiction programming. “Our presence at these births is going   
   to make them far safer than if they were doing it on their own.”   
      
   The series itself was inspired by a viral video showing a birth   
   in a forest that racked up 20 million views (photo above).   
      
   Lehrer says he has a personal connection to the show’s concept   
   himself as his second child was born at home via midwife.   
      
   “This isn’t [Discovery Channel's] Naked and Afraid and we’re   
   dropping people in the woods and saying ‘go have the baby,’” he   
   says. “These are all people who have already had babies in   
   hospitals who had unsatisfying experiences and who are choosing   
   to have different experiences. This is something people are   
   doing and we set out to document it.”   
      
   Even with the safety measures in place, however, Jaekle insists   
   Born in the Wild “doesn’t make any sense.” He contends that even   
   with modern medical care, just giving birth at home — let alone   
   in a forest — is demonstrably more risky. “[The number of   
   children impacted] is a small number — until it’s your kid,”   
   Jaekle says of home birth complications.   
      
   “They can’t possibly make it safe enough to not [eventually]   
   have a problem that will need a medical intervention to save the   
   day. And then [the producers] won’t interview the docs in the   
   ICU who will say, ‘This would never have happened if she had   
   been in a hospital.’”   
      
   Another possible concern is the show inspiring couples not   
   protected by the production’s safety net to try this more   
   extreme “natural” route, something that’s particularly unsafe   
   for first-time mothers (which the show will not allow to   
   participate).   
      
   “I’m not worried this is going to spark a trend,” Lehrer says.   
   “I truly don’t think this is something people would enter into   
   lightly. This is a very specific subset of people doing this.”   
      
   The series was one of four new unscripted shows the network   
   announced Wednesday. The network also ordered Girlfriend   
   Intervention, a racial twist on Bravo’s classic Queer Eye for   
   the Straight Guy, about “four wise, poised and stylish African   
   American women, who, in each episode, help a white sister   
   seeking a complete makeover to restore her confidence and inner   
   glow.”   
      
   There’s also Threads, a “competition series showcasing America’s   
   most talented young fashion designers,” and Kosher Soul,   
   following a stylist and comedian who converts to Judaism to   
   please his wife.   
      
   http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/06/04/birth-in-the-wild-reality-   
   debate/   
      
       
      
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