EXPERTS have slammed RTÉ for airing a dummy birth segment on the Late Late Show describing it as ‘poor judgment’.
There are claims that offence was caused by the segment which depicted a life-sized dummy ‘mother’, called Lucinda, giving birth to a dummy of a baby during the show on Friday.
AIMS Ireland (The Association for the Improvements in the Maternity Services Ireland) are amongst those claiming offence after saying they were disappointed and dismayed at the lack of judgement shown by the editorial team for the show.
“As the representative body for maternity service users in Ireland service users in Ireland, AIMS calls on RTÉ to apologise and also looks to the Broadcasting Authority to comment on the piece,” said a spokeswoman.
She said AIMS took particular issue with the fact that ‘Lucinda’ was laid on her back (something research now argues isn’t healthy for mother or baby), with her lower half exposed to the nation whilst being 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.
“There are so many things wrong here it’s hard to know where to begin.
“Airing a piece like this without any regard to how this might affect women and their families who have had difficult maternity experiences demonstrates a complete wilful disregard for women in the most vulnerable of circumstances.
“It was an appalling error of judgement on the part of the editorial team,” she said.
AIMS chair Krysia Lynch said that it reinforces the idea 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," she said.
"It reinforces stereotypical imagery that birthing people should lie on their backs 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)."
See More: Baby, Birth, Controversy, Late Late Show, RTE One
