https://time.com/6315514/birth-and-trauma-on-tv/

Writers have always turned to pregnancy and birth for drama—never forget Bailey delivering while her husband was in brain surgery on Grey’s Anatomy or Peggy not realizing she was pregnant until she was in labor on Mad Men. Call the Midwife has churned out 12 seasons centered on birth. Jane the Virgin turned what could have been a traumatizing moment—an accidental artificial insemination—into fodder for comedy. And pregnancy as body horror has been a mainstay since Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and Alien (1979). Dead Ringers is itself a remake of a 1988 David Cronenberg film, though series creator Alice Birch has gender-flipped the conniving twin doctors in the new adaptation.

But lately, these tales in television and podcasting have proliferated and expanded their scope to reckon with how pain in pregnancy and childbirth can be compounded by flawed and patriarchal systems: A family system in which the father is encouraged to prioritize a child over a partner and mother, a medical system that’s overstretched and blatantly ignores women’s pain. Set against the backdrop of last year’s Dobbs decision, the horror of being caught up in an uncaring system without true autonomy takes on new resonance. (italics added)