House of The Dragon childbirth scene

[ReeseWitherfork]

(Sorry if this has been discussed, couldn’t see it anywhere?)

Anyone else find the childbirth scene just too much? A quick google tells me the producers apparently showed it to the women in their lives who said it needed to be more traumatic if anything. Important to show how horrific and dangerous childbirth can be. Especially with Roe v Wade etc.

So part of me thinks I’m burying my head in the sand for not being able to stomach it. But a bigger part of me thinks I know how the dangers of childbirth and I don’t want to see it messed about with for entertainment purposes. Such a detailed scene seems distastefully “shock value” and nothing more.

Any thoughts or opinions?

It was harsh, but the red wedding I cannot watch.

Have we all forgotten that childbirth was, until very recently, the most dangerous thing a woman can do? And that also, we had little pain relief until very recently?

And that despite all of that, some of us still experience birth in a horrific way for a multitude of reasons? Birth trauma is real, it exists, some of still die doing it.

I would argue that all this “breathe to whale music and you won’t feel a thing” is the most white privilege dangerous bullshit around birth that exists.

I found it hard to watch for sure. I think anyone who's had a baby would find it hard to watch.

I'm sure I've read though that when sections were conducted in medieval times, the mother had already died and they rarely resulted in a live birth.

There was an article that came out a day or two later, possibly in the Times, written by a historian who looked the history of C-Sections. They basically summarised that it was gratuitous, women were given c-sections after they died to try and save the baby. It went back to Greek references to c-sections and explained where the term came from. Annoyingly I can’t find the article now!

I don't watch Game of Thrones.I almost died having an EMCS 52 years ago.The memory of it remains with me every bit of it.
Not long after my horrible childbirth I started watching War and Peace which was on TV then. I had to stop watching the when the scene of Princess Lisa dying in childbirth came on.

Where, exactly?

Just to avoid giving the impression that everywhere in the non-white world is devoid of medical knowledge, staff or facilities ….

Apparently the scriptwriters' intention was that Viserys was just given the choice between killing Aemma to save the baby or losing both, and that he wasn't given the option of killing the baby to save Aemma.

I watched the scene and rationalised that given how they were presenting Aemma’s situation, she was not going to survive, no matter what, They described it as a breech birth and they were not confident that they could deliver the baby in that position. Her labour failed to progress. Eventually, the baby will have died in utero, with no safe way for it to be extracted. The mother will inevitably also die in those situation. So, I thought, in reality, the choices were to save the baby, or lose both. Saving Aemma really wasn’t on the table…

Definitely not forgotten. I was blue lighted into hospital the first time I was in labour, baby wheeled to NICU straight away. (He’s fine, I’m fine, second labour was a dream, but just wanted to reassure you that I don’t think childbirth is some happy clappy experience, that’s not my point at all.)

Well, I really enjoyed it, and I only gave birth a year ago myself. A tricky breech so thank god I was able to have an ELCS.

Thought it was a brilliant scene that didn’t shy away from the butchery of medieval childbirth. I do like a gory scene and subject matter though.

I read recently that one in EIGHT women die in childbirth in rural Afghanistan
And the country has the lowest rate of doctors for the general population

There were 10 women in my NCT group. The idea that at least one of us would have died is just chilling
Can you imagine the pure terror of being a pregnant woman knowing those are your odds..?

@MostTacticalNameChange
I had a section without anaesthetic

What?!

Side note: the (hand-powered) chainsaw was originally invented for cutting bone to allow child birth. We are so so lucky to be living in a time of anaesthetic and scans and all the blessings of modern medicine.

Interesting discussion. I watched all of GoT but I’ve gone soft the last few years so doubt I’d have the stomach for this show. Really thoughtful posts, thank you.

Yep - a failed epidural then a quick EMCS - I was given the option of a GA but thought my DC wouldn't survive so demanded to be kept awake so I could at least meet them. I finally gave in when they started the stitching up - I knew DC was ok by then and the pain got too much so was knocked out. Bit traumatic.

And I thought ventouse/rotational forceps without so much as a sniff of gas&air was bad 🥴

Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia accounted for 86% of the world maternal deaths in 2017, and 94% of maternal deaths were in low or lower middle income countries, apparently.

I assume men in medieval times (and later) were given the option of sacrificing their baby to save their wife, but I can’t imagine many high ranking men chose it. And it must have been very, very dangerous for the woman.

It's better than the versions of childbirth in movies that make childbirth look all rosy and easy (and make women feel like a failure if they don't have that).

Her husband decided she would die without discussion and then proceeded to lie to her about what was happening...

That being said, looking at it objectively she'd have died either way as they couldn't deliver the baby. I feel as a mother she'd have most likely told them to do what they did but would have had autonomy over her own body. That is what made me feel sick. That autonomy was taken away from her.

I immediately started imagining how I would have tried to get that baby to turn. Did they get mum on all fours? Was she encouraged to walk around during the Labour? Did they actually know how to perform a turn? (Although I think that’s not done these days), But that’s me I always want to imagine a terrible situation can be fixed! It was a horrible scene, I’ve had 3 C sections.

I have to admit I've not seen it yet, but when I read it on the news, I did think to myself 'This is Game of Thrones, WTF do you expect?!'

When she started saying how difficult her pregnancy had been I had a bad feeling it was going to be a horrible birth and it was, made me feel sick and found it hard to watch. Thank god woman don't have to go through anything like that now a days!

I agree. The birth scene was horrible, but I was upset for days after the Red Wedding episode.

Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia accounted for 86% of the world maternal deaths in 2017, and 94% of maternal deaths were in low or lower middle income countries, apparently.

That is very far from ‘exact’ - and in fact reinforces an impression that vast stretches of continents are all one indistinct blob.

One would want to know which areas of specific countries suffer with inadequate facilities and which areas offer care that is at least as good as, or better than that offered by the NHS. (And it would be better cross referenced with the treatment and outcomes for different races under NHS care.)

Women still die in childbirth in the UK in 2022.
This scene seemed realistic for mediaeval childbirth, particularly in a royal birth for a much desired son. The mother is just the vessel and by the time the birth comes, disposable.

Childbirth in medieval times was seen as the female equivalent of the battlefield. For good reason!