Pregnancy and Birth

Losing it: birth on the big screen

Nedua Hussain examines the disempowering and unrealistic depictions of birth in movies and TV, and shares why it matters more than we think I love films, I love going to the cinema or watch films online. I love to watch people’s lives played out on the screen. Childhood, adolescence, finding a partner, having children, death…but hang on, when have I last seen a birth scene? When I looked closer, I realised that in general, childbirth scenes are largely absent in films or omitted completely (we see a pregnant woman and then we see her with the baby as though birth hasn’t happened). Why is something so central to human existence not portrayed? We see pictures of naked women regularly in the public domain, on and off screen, women being beautiful, sexual beings in all kinds of situations – but not while birthing their babies. But let’s look at those films...