This isn’t a parenting site, so I’ll spare you my birth story. The point is, it did not involve me a) screaming for my husband, b) being forcibly restrained, or c) waking up with a baby in my arms to whom I have no recollection of actually giving birth. WTF.
How terrifying was that scene? I mean, Betty obviously knew that she was going to the hospital to have a baby, so it’s not as if she’s one of those people who thinks she has indigestion and ends up with a kid. Regardless, “in my arms after waking up from a drug-induced haze” isn’t on my list of top ways I want to meet my child.
Betty isn’t thrilled with this child, and her grief over her father’s death is only exacerbating the issue. Add that to the fact that Carla isn’t going to be around at night, and Don doesn’t exactly seem eager to share in diaper duty, and Betty has a long, difficult road ahead of her, with very little support. As badly as I feel for the character, this can only mean good things for the show going forward.
I also love how Mad Men manages to thematically link the different storylines, like they did in the all-singing, all-dancing episode. Betty and Don weren’t the only ones with babies on the brain this week. We haven’t really seen Pete and Peggy interact this season, and now we find out there’s a good reason for it: they are hardcore avoiding each other; at least, Pete is avoiding Peggy ever since her revelation at the end of last season.
That’s why Duck’s reemergence into the world of Sterling Cooper is so interesting: he’s putting these characters in a position in which their futures affect each other. As Pete says to her, “your decision affects me too.” Talk about double meanings. I really hope we see more of Pete’s reaction to the fact that he has a child out in the world somewhere, especially how it relates to his wife’s desire to have one of their own. Of course, knowing Pete, he’s probably just happy that it’s not his fault they can’t get pregnant, and his manhood is still intact.
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Sep 15, 2009 @ 09:00 EST5EDT
It’s often called being in “twilight sleep” or the “Freiburg method”- you’re put under anesthesia so you don’t remember the experience. The method was initially praised because women wouldn’t have to remember the pain of childbirth however, it’s been mostly abandoned because of negative side effects – especially emotionally – lacking the connection to the baby and the knowledge that they had given birth. Also, the drugs had depressive effects on the central nervous systems of the babies – drowsiness and poor breathing capacity.
The 1950s giving birth had become very controlled in order to ward off infection (which was a major killer of women and babies) – they’d shave all the woman’s public hair, administer large enemas, prohibit fathers/other loved ones from entering the maternity area (which is why Don and the kids visit by waving from the lawn of the hospital and Don is kept from the process in the solarium), the babies were kept in nurseries and were handled as little as possible. Bottle-feeding was also believed to be more sanitary than breast-feeding.
The 1960s brought forth a new era of natural childbirth as a response to the controlling 50s – women began protesting the previous practices including the use of pain meds, that often kept women out of it for hours and days after they had given birth. National and international organizations cropped up in order to support these moms.
Just another interesting social change that “Mad Men” is presenting – this season is all about the growing rumblings of change. Like the death of the budist monk, Medger Evers’ murder, and integration – signs that change is starting to come from all sides.
My girlfriend is an OB/GYN. She said the same thing when I told her about Betty’s labor and delivery: “Twilight.”
Great post!
When my grandmother gave birth to my mom (in 1965) she was so out of it that my grandfather filled out the birth certificate. He put a different name than what they had agreed on, but my grandma still called my mother the original name. My mom didn’t find out it wasn’t her real name until she got her drivers license.