A few weeks ago my son was watching DOORA, as he likes to call it, and I was doing my thing around the house while he was entertained. Don’t judge me….. Nick Jr. is a lifesaver some days…. and he has learned a lot too! Of course I could hear what was going on in the show, and I started listening in towards the end of the show. That is when things got interesting.
Dora was heading to her own home. I started watching because I had never seen her parents. Frankly, they appear to be pretty neglectful since their daughter is off on adventures with a monkey every day. Does she even go to school? I was curious to see her folks.
She walks in and there is a group of family members gathered in the living area with pins on, it looked like some sort of baby shower. Dora was a Big Sister! Her mother had just had a baby. Dora and Boots were pretty stoked and wanted to see the baby.
I was actually getting confused. Her mother just gave birth but she was visiting her at home. How could this be?! Does her country have an expedited hospital release policy of 10 minutes after birth?!
Dora and Boots went into her parent’s bedroom and Dora was excited to see the baby. The mom and dad said there was a surprise. Dora peeks in the cradle and finds that there are twins, a boy and girl. She also woke the babies up. Her mother and father didn’t seem upset, which is totally unrealistic. In my house, “You wake ’em, you take ’em!”
They rock and sing to the babies and put them back in the cradle together.
Now, was this a Homebirth?!
I had not seen the entire episode. Maybe she had the babies earlier than I thought, although I got the distinct impression she literally just had the babies, which is why Dora was there. But, I went back and found clips of the show on Youtube (poor quality) and rewatched it. Yes, her mommy gave birth to TWINS at HOME! Go Dora’s Mom!
While it is never stated, you can tell they never left home and the babies came there. Of course this is a cartoon. There are no doctors or midwives present, although it could be assumed that out of the family in the living room maybe the grandmother helped in the process. Or maybe the midwife already left? I don’t think the writers are wanting you to assume she had a UC (unassisted childbirth) but you never know. My own homebirth midwife had just delivered a set of twins for a mother at her home 2 weeks before my birth. People do it, and can do it! And before hospitals, you had to! Twins certainly existed before births moved to hospitals.
Will children pick up on this? My son is too young to understand babies and birth. One day he will know he was born in a hospital and his brother was born at home. Maybe he will see this again and ask if those babies were born at home. Maybe older kids will see it and wonder why the mommy isn’t in the hospital? And if those kids have been exposed to homebirth, they might automatically assume she had those babies at home!
I don’t know if Nick Jr. is meaning to expose kids to an alternative method of having babies (doubtful) or if they are just avoiding any mention of “birth” by having the parents at home versus a hospital, where births take place for most people.
The babies are given bottles; you can’t win all the battles. However, while browsing for the episode I found a Dora doll where she wears both babies in a sling. It was small victory since the babies are a. facing out and b. being fed a bottle.
If you want to see for yourself you can view the crummy YouTube videos, you only need to watch part 2 (begin around 3:40) and part 3.
If you want to own the episode there is actually a DVD called Dora the Explorer – Big Sister Dora