Focus on Pregnancy : Reality TV Show Takes Mystery Out of Birth

Pregnant women are known for their unusual cravings. Pickles. Ice cream. And sometimes the two mixed together.

Now add another addiction to the list: “A Baby Story,” the reality-based television show chronicling couples’ birth experiences. A real-life soap opera of sorts, the Los Angeles-based show has become a hit nationwide among pregnant women and their spouses.

While most television births feature actresses screaming in pain moments before beaming down at a plump, smiling infant, this show offers everyday moms and dads in all sorts of birthing scenarios. Home births, bathtub births, caesarean sections, birthing centers, traditional hospital births, long labors and decisions about pain medication--to have the epidural or not--have all been featured story lines.

Pregnant viewers say the show helps them learn about different birthing options and prepare for childbirth by demystifying the process and lifting the curtain on what really goes on at the hospital. Because there is a personal story line attached to each couple--such as infertility problems or a particular type of birth--the actual event often leaves viewers of both sexes teary-eyed.

“I had never seen a real birth before and was always a little afraid to see one,” said Kim Ochoa, 35, of Los Angeles, whose first baby is due in October. “It’s helped me get ready.”

Ochoa heard about the show from a friend at work who confessed she was hooked on each emotional episode. “Now I do the same thing. I always cry at the birth no matter how they get there. The babies are so perfect.”

Because the producers are based in Los Angeles and often need to get to the hospital quickly, all the featured couples are from the Los Angeles area, including the Westside, Tarzana and South-Central. The families represent various ethnic, religious and economic backgrounds.

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Liz Camfiord, 35, of Brentwood said she found the show while channel-surfing when she was confined to bed rest during her first pregnancy earlier this year. “It was like the birth preparation class I was unable to take,” said Camfiord, whose son, Jacob, was born in March. “It really soothed my anxiety.”

During the first 10 minutes of the half-hour show, the couple talk about themselves--why they wanted a child, any difficulties conceiving, how they found out they were going to have a baby. The next 10 minutes are usually devoted to various prenatal events: baby showers, prenatal yoga classes, “daddy boot camp” (baby classes for dads) or a visit to the pet therapist to discuss how to introduce the new baby to the family dog. The last 10 minutes reveal the agony of labor, the drama of birth--tastefully filmed--and a final visit with the parents again a few weeks or months later.

So far, the national show, which debuted in September 1998, has captured more than 80 births. They have never lost a baby, and producers agree to stop filming at any order from the couple or medical personnel. Several couples have dropped out because of medical problems. Medical personnel and hospital administrators must give their permission for filming, and few have turned the show--and the publicity it generates--away.

The majority of “A Baby Story’s” viewers are women 18 to 34, according to Nielsen ratings. The second season starts Sept. 27, and the show has been swamped with requests from parents wanting their stories captured on film--despite the lack of financial compensation.

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But it wasn’t always so easy. After Chuck Gingold, daytime programming chief for the Learning Channel, developed the idea, it was the job of the production team at Pie Town Productions to find couples who would be willing to air their births on television. Pie Town’s Tara Sandler, Jennifer Davidson and crew called labor coaches and midwives, and even approached pregnant women at labor classes and on the street. While some couples are in the entertainment industry and are comfortable with television, others are motivated to participate because they want to show the advantages of a particular birthing method such as a home birth. Still others just want the ultimate birthing video for their child.

Alex Downs, 40, a writer in Long Beach, said that while he was initially concerned the presence of a television crew would be intrusive, he and his wife, Tammy ann Casper, said they ended up with a wonderful memento for their daughter, Liberty Rae, when they were featured on an episode last year.

“We thought, we’re doing a little story for our daughter. We focused on this with her as our audience and thought about what we would want to share with her years down the road,” said Casper, 38, an associate producer of the television show “The Practice.” Casper was in labor with Liberty for four days, all in the presence of a film crew.

“We would do it again. It didn’t even feel like they were even there,” said Casper. “People recognize us all the time, in malls or at a party. They come up and say, ‘Oh, I saw you on “A Baby Story.” Is that Liberty?’ It’s like they know her.”

John Cowsill, a DJ at a Ventura radio station, and his wife, Ann, will be the subjects of the first episode of the new season. Cowsill, who has a morning radio show, heard about the show from his mother-in-law and began watching after work in the afternoons.

“Soon I was at home on the couch and bawling, and saying to my wife, ‘Honey, you should have seen it today; it was a home birth,’ ” Cowsill said.

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The show’s success as a reality-based program targeting women follows in the footsteps of more macho reality series such as cop and rescue shows. These mini-documentaries of the cinema verite genre, which focuses the camera on true-life events, are becoming increasingly popular, producers said.

“We think family-based reality dramas are the next step. Truth is stranger than fiction,” said Davidson of Pie Town, which also produces other reality shows such as “Designing for the Sexes,” featuring couples at odds over home decorating, on Home & Garden Television, and “A Dating Story,” which will debut this season on the Learning Channel.

“It’s the miracle of birth, and it hits home with our family audiences,” Gingold added. “But we really want likable couples. People can’t relate to just a birth.”

That’s why you won’t find any couples screaming at each other in the delivery room or anyone expressing serious doubts about having a baby in “A Baby Story.”

“We try to show happy couples and really screen for people we think are going to be a good family,” Sandler said. “We’re doing happy television.”

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The show airs two half-hour episodes Monday through Friday at 2 and 2:30 p.m. on the Learning Channel.