Remember the Psychology of Daytime Television: The Young and the Childbearing!

This Wednesday, October 5 2011, birth advocate and friend Barbara Harper will be on the US daytime talk show, The Doctors.  Filmed a few weeks ago, we have anxiously been waiting on this segment.


As we prepare to gather before our televisions on that day, please try to remember that this show is on daytime television!  Daytime television is the home of ridiculous game shows, shows where half of the US population do not know actual paternity, people dress up like chickens to win prizes and residents of imaginary towns flaunt their dirty laundry. (Wait, am I sure I am talking about DAYTIME television?)


According to Wikipedia, daytime television is  usually designed to be viewed by audiences such as stay-at-home mothers and fathers, and secondarily those viewers who might not usually carry a job, such as the unemployed, senior citizens and in some select cases, college students. For all intents and purposes however the traditional target of daytime television has been demographically 18-49 women, and as such daytime programming is hosted by women and usually pertains to women's issues and other subjects such as child care, minor health care and other issues within a home setting.


I suppose by that definition and judging from the kind of drivel they put on Daytime Television, programming must be mindless and ridiculous for this demographics to be attracted to it.  Keeping with that thought, then, does that imply that The Doctors falls into the category of drivel.


If you are following this logic train, then to be upset with the reception that Barbara is going to receive OR did receive on this daytime television show is also drivel.  However, if you look more closely at the demographics of 18-49 women, these are childbearing women!  This is also OUR target market!  Hence, we cannot ignore this drivel.


So, I propose that the entire cyber birth community begin today to flood the net even more with evidence of best practice of maternity care - statistics, quotes, videos etc.  Yes, even more than normal.


In this way, when The Doctors airs on Wednesday, and stays then forever on You Tube, all will see it as............just drivel.