Viewing Childbirth In School
I’m really on my soapbox this morning, so I just have to blog about it! I found this article online at the Athens Banner-Herald, a local paper here in Georgia. Apparently, parents of kids at Malcolm Bridge Elementary School in Oglethorpe County, Georgia, are up in arms over their children seeing a video with a scene depicting childbirth.
The show is a 1997 episode of “Reading Rainbow” called “On The Day You Were Born.” According to the article, teachers have been showing this video every year since it was aired in 1997. It is part of the school’s approved curriculum. The video is part of a section of lessons on family changes, and depicts a real family of five dealing with the expected birth of a new child.
I haven’t seen the video, but the article describes the controversial(!) scene as real, and not a dramatization. The mother is shown from the side dressed in a hospital gown, and no private parts are revealed. Following the birth, the doctor holds up the newborn for the camera.
Some parents were outraged that their children had been shown this video. One mother called it “disgusting” and thought that parents should have been notified that it would be shown. The teachers who showed the video wrote a letter home to the parents, apologizing for any issues it had caused.
What is wrong with these people?! Since when is childbirth disgusting? I’m the proud mom of a 17-year-old. I remember her birth as though it were yesterday. There was nothing disgusting about it. I’ll grant you, there were moments in there when I wasn’t exactly having fun, but I certainly didn’t find it repulsive. And just look what I have to show for it!
I’m genuinely amazed by the attitudes of some people. What kind of examples are we setting for our children by making so much fuss over something which is a normal, natural part of life? I wonder what that mom will say if her child asks if she found his/her birth “disgusting?”
I realize this has nothing in particular to do with teenagers, but I’ve seen parents of teens with the same strait-laced attitudes. Let’s lighten up here, people!
For more on younger children, go to
Parenting Children
parenting, childbirth, school curriculum, sex education, parenting teens, parenting teenagers
October 25th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Some parents of teens don’t bat an eye when their kids are watching MTV or other sexually explicit shows, but show them real life birth or breastfeeding and they freak out. Since when are natural body processes lude and indecent?
October 26th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Good point, Liz. People really amaze me with their attitudes toward the actual facts of life!
October 29th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Wow, sounds like some parents have issues with their bodies. I wonder if they showed the Mr. Rodgers episode that shows women breastfeeding openly if these same parents’ heads would explode.
October 30th, 2007 at 8:40 am
[…] Original post by Gayle […]
December 15th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
This is incredible.What’s the world turning to?
We’re becoming something else.
Well,hered in my country,Nigeria,this is never done.
Can never be done,no matter how advanced you may think your civilization is becoming.
February 28th, 2008 at 11:42 am
I agree with you completely! I don’t understand why so many parents are so overly sensitive. I can only imagine how afraid their teens would be to talk with them about issues like this! I want to be open with my children so that they will feel free to come to me and talk with me about anything.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:33 am
It is disgusting. Lets face it. Who you give birth if it wasnt for the child ? a childbirth is crude, I would never allow my kids to watch one if I had any. Its not about having issues with your body, would you like to be filmed while taking a dump ? (no, its not so very different..)