The Back-up Plan? Not so much.

I've heard so much about the homebirth spoof scene in The Backup Plan that I had to get it on Netflix DVD to see for myself. I knew it would be bad, and I was prepared for the fact that if homebirth appears in mainstream movies, it is almost universally made fun of. What I *wasn't* prepared for was the main character's sister's anti-child, anti-birth, anti-breastfeeding agenda.

In the first few minutes of the movie, J Lo's character explains how badly she wants a baby, but doesn't have her sister's support. Her sister has 4 kids and tries to talk J Lo out of having children. She says they "ruined her life" and destroyed her vagina (if that were true, she had very difficult, atypical births; this is not the physiological norm). She actually said "I hate them" (referring to her children)--within earshot of them. Wow, nice.

A few minutes later, she tells J Lo that breastfeeding will ruin her breasts and turn them into drooping "tubes" (total myth--it's PREGNANCY that can potentially affect perkiness/sagginess, NOT breastfeeding), and that childbirth will destroy her bladder (again, not the biological norm).

I'm sure the homebirth scene later in the movie would have been a hoot, but I didn't have the patience for it. I gave up after I had heard more than enough myths perpetuated for one night, let alone the horrible attitude the sister had toward children. I know it's just a "comedy," but I don't think it's funny. Someone is bound to believe those things when they hear them perpetuated in the mainstream. Not many people are likely to look it up for themselves to see what's true.