… at least in Spain:
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This great video has been circulating around the birth-activist regions of the blogosphere recently, since it first aired a few days ago. It’s a television commercial for a bed, and the characters in the commercial are no actors. It’s actual scenes from an actual family, giving birth at home while a peaceful soundtrack plays, and voiceovers talk about the miracle, the specialness, the joy of birth, and the tradition of birthing at home.
There is no fretting about whether or not home birth is safe. There is no screaming and panicking. There is a secure and confident woman with her family by her side, bringing her baby into the world in front of our very eyes.
You could argue that this is an idealized image of home birthing, and that would be somewhat true. But it’s also true that this commercial — really a short film — does not shy away from some of the more sensitive details of birth. While the mother is strong, she does groan in pain and at one point laments that she “can’t do this.” We are shown the full scene of the baby coming out, it’s not graphic or gross, but nothing is hidden. A midwife can be seen at one point in the video, but she is obviously not the one “in charge” of the labour. It’s birth, natural birth, real birth, in all its pain and all its glory.
With all the hooplah and paranoia and suspicion and skepticism that home birth faces in this part of the world, it’s refreshing and reassuring to see that in some places, birthing at home is so normal and unsurprising and positive that it appears on television in an advertisement (the ad states that “Waira was born on March 21, in a Flex Bed.”) The mother even brings the baby to her breast immediately after birth and is later seen nursing while lying in bed — with no blurring or censoring.
To be totally honest, I have no idea whether home birth is more common in Spain than in North America, or if societal attitudes are really that different. But you do have to wonder what the general reaction would have been if this commercial had aired in the middle of American Idol or The Real Housewives of Orange County.
For translations of the dialogue and more thoughts on this commercial, read some of the other blog posts about it.
[This post was written by Heather Dunham]
You know what’s funny? In Spain, homebirthing is far from common. People almost always go to the hospital, and women are usually treated as stupid and sick children: we have one of the highest c-section rates of Europe. But this ad is making the possibility of homebirthing somewhat present and real. I love it.
Heather, I live in Spain, I am a childbirth educator and gave birth at home here 3 years ago and just wanted to say that home-birth in this country is absolutely a tiny minority of the population, with the same kind of societal attitudes as North America, so this ad has created a big stir as you can imagine!!! Thank you for your post. Sophia
Gosh, it all looks so… normal.
Funny, and a little sad, that the American mind might open for a commercial more readily than for a full-on documentary. Maybe advertising products to the main stream is a key to spanning the void. Act like it’s perfectly normal and it will be.
I hate to tell you, but as a brit resident in spain and recent HBAC mama, HB is far from the norm here and you certainly won’t get one on the national health service.
As pleased as I am with the “normalization” of home birth in this video, do we really need it to be selling mattresses, or anything for that matter? Why is birth seen as a cash cow? Birthing being a cash cow for the doctors and hospitals is what got us in the hot mess we’re in now. Jeez, can we just leave capitolism out of birth already, for crying out loud?
I think that ‘yes’ images like this are necessary! even when selling a mattress, to have it widely published, ‘this is a normality’ and it need not be so controversial to have a homebirth, it needs to be seen in other areas other than the ones where you have to specifically go looking for the information,I had my baby just like this lady, It was the most beautiful experience of my life and I feel so privileged to have had the opportuinty to experience birth in this relaxed manner rather than the way we are all accustomed to. (we see the other hospitalised/ screaming birth on TV everyday!)
“OH my gosh!” I cried out when I saw this commercial. This is amazing. I wish they’d air it in America. My babies were born like this, and most of my friends think I’m an anomaly. In reality, I was merely aware it was possible. (When we need a new mattress, I’m checking out FLEX.)
The video brought tears to my eyes, remembering the births of my own two children. I gave birth at UCLA Medical Center, which I helped to prepare for natural childbirth. That teaching hospital supported my wishes for natural birth. To have the child at home with family members present is another good possibility, though I have known some who made a sudden rush to the hospital while attempting it.
The other issue is about the commercial connection. If the commercial connection is sound, there are benefits for the company and for home birth concepts. In this case if a memorable gratifying home birth experience sells mattresses, all the better.
Women have the right to select where and how to give birth, but they do not have right to put their babies in danger.
I live in Spain and wanted a homebirth. I was made to feel like an utter criminal for wanting to harm my baby. I also breastfed and you would have thought I was feeding that child poison!. The national health service in Spain far from normalises anything natural about childbirth. Pregnancy is a disease to be cured. I have no clue why it is used to sell this mattress. Many Spanish people who have seen this comment that the woman in the advert was complete irresponsible for having the child at home. That’s the attitude here in Spain.