Mums all have the same complaint about This Is Going To Hurt’s graphic childbirth scenes
MUMS have all had the same complaint about This Is Going To Hurt’s graphic childbirth scenes. The BBC drama stars Ben Whishaw as Adam, a junior NHS Obstetrics and Gynaecology doctor juggling the long hours of his job with his crumbling personal life. The seven-episode series features numerous childbirth scenes from emergency C-sections to natural […]
MUMS have all had the same complaint about This Is Going To Hurt’s graphic childbirth scenes.
The BBC drama stars Ben Whishaw as Adam, a junior NHS Obstetrics and Gynaecology doctor juggling the long hours of his job with his crumbling personal life.
The seven-episode series features numerous childbirth scenes from emergency C-sections to natural labours, and while some have a humorous tone to them, others are very serious.
However, a number of real life mums and professionals who have watched the whole series as a boxset on BBC iPlayer have taken issue with the labour scenes.
Despite being based on the book of the same name by comedian Adam Kay from his time as a junior doctor, some feel the series “trivialised” labour and was written in a “mocking and derogatory” way.
Times columnist Janice Turner tweeted that she found the show “unbearable hateful towards women, especially pregnant ones”, and depicted them as “just thick cows, malingerers, bigots, vaginas or slabs of meat”.
Meanwhile anthropology lecturer Raluca Bianca Roman said the show was “a huge step backwards” in regards to how it depicted “women’s pain on TV.”
She wrote: “The show is incredibly dangerous in perpetuating misogynistic views that women’s pain/bodies are just something that has to be dealt with. Birth is seen as an ‘incident’.”
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She wasn’t alone in her view, as community midwife Rachael Dewey tweeted: “[the show] demeans women’s experiences/bodies and has dramatised attitudes we’re trying to move away from in midwifery/obs and gynaecology.
“Calling obs and gynae ‘Brats and t***s’ – just sums it up really … It’s not representative of respectful maternity care and how birthing women should be portrayed.”
However, Ambika Mod, who plays junior doctor Shruti, defended the show following the criticism.
As well as citing Shruti as a “complex female character”, she also said “we were as respectful towards women as we possibly could be”.
“It’s not something we’ve seen on television before.”
She added that a lot of viewers had got in touch to say how grateful they were that it had “showed childbirth as it actually is – because it is brutal, it is messy, and it is gory. And that’s not something we’ve seen on television before.”
Meanwhile Juliet Pearce, director of nursing midwifery at the Isle of Wight NHS trust, described the show as “hilarious and heartbreaking”.
She added that it was a “reminder of the human emotions behind every tired, scared and fallible healthcare professional”.
This Is Going To Hurt airs tonight at 9pm on BBC One and is available as a boxset on BBC iPlayer.
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