Experts have slammed RTE for its “poor judgment” in airing the segment involving a dummy giving birth on the Late Late Show on Friday.
The Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services Ireland (AIMS) have said that it was “disappointed and dismayed at the poor judgement expressed by the Late Late Show editorial team for Friday’s segment on birth”.
The national broadcaster has been called on to apologise for airing the birth segment in which the dummy, named Lucinda, was laid flat on a bed with her lower half exposed whilst she was she was told to “push into her bum” and “keep going” by a medical student in order to produce a fake baby out of her fake body.
AIMS chair Krysia Lynch said: “Using a dummy/ machine like this to represent a woman in this context reinforces the notion that birth is “done to women” and that they are not active participants in their own birth experiences.
“Airing this vignette on national television on one of the most watched shows on public broadcasting in Ireland does the public a disservice.
“It reinforces stereotypical imagery that birthing people should lie on their backs (something research has told us is not good for mother or baby) and should be coached into holding their breath and forced pushing (again something research has told us is not the best option for mother or baby).”
RTE Radio recently ran a weeklong segment on Liveline airing stories of people who experienced birth trauma.
A spokesperson for the AIMS said: “We heard harrowing stories of lack of empathy, insensitivity, lack of evidence based care and in some cases obstetric violence.
They added: “The empathy, kindness and respect shown by Joe Duffy and his team to these, in some cases, ‘broken’ women was highly commendable and heartening and many of the contributors noted this.
“Then, only weeks later, the same broadcaster, RTE, decides to depict this very same style of birth ‘management’ as ‘entertainment’ on a prime time entertainment show.
“It was an appalling error of judgement on the part of the editorial team.”
