Advice and public service show for infanticipating women

“PREGNANT in Heels”

One of the more unusual programs that have just started telecasting on cable TV is “Pregnant in Heels.” The new show’s title is initially a puzzler: Is it a reality challenge that requires its contestants to be pregnant and race each other in a mad dash to the finish line while clad in high-heeled shoes?

Uh, let’s not be so doggedly literal. The program is actually an advice and public service show that welcomes all sorts of cries for help from infanticipating women—the more unusual the problem, the better.

On  July 9 at 8 p.m. on the 2nd Avenue channel, the program provided help and counsel for a woman who wanted to deliver her child the “natural” way, and another lady who wanted to have sex with her suddenly inhibited spouse, among other requests for assistance.

To its credit, the show didn’t rely exclusively on its in-house staff of specialists, but invited other experts to make the advice dispensed specifically helpful to each “client.”

Thus, the sex-deprived woman and her suddenly shy husband were counseled by a sex therapist who correctly identified their problem as a case of the male partner no longer being able to see his wife as a desirable woman, because she was going to become the mother of his child.

The sex therapist had to come up with “games” that helped him get over his inhibiting hangup, so he could again pleasure his wife in the passionate manner to which she had become accustomed!

As for the woman who wanted to give birth to her baby the “natural” way, it turned out that the idea was more her husband’s “bright” notion than her own. So, the experts assigned to them had to focus more on him, to make him understand that while his wish came from a good place, he had to remind himself that natural birth might entail a lot of pain, and that it was his wife who would have to bear all of it!

It was important, therefore, that the decision would be hers, and if after studying all the pros and cons, she ended up nixing the idea, he wouldn’t take it against her.

The experts assigned to the case were frankly startled when the male partner enthusiastically and even rhapsodically talked about humans’ natural, animal instinct for giving birth—even declaring that all women who were about to deliver a child had to do was to hang on to the nearest tree, give a big, exultant push—and “nature” would take care of everything else!

Well, you can bet that they quickly and curtly disabused him of that illusion, and other, less drastic options were subsequently considered.

As for the pregnant woman, she was made to understand that, while it was admirable of her to want to make her beloved husband happy, she should still have the last word on the subject— without feeling guilty if she should decide against his “just grab a hold of a tree and enjoy the natural experience” fantasy!

All told, therefore, “Pregnant in Heels” may initially sound like a kinky title designed to grab viewers’ attention on the cheap, the program itself does fill a felt need for pregnant women to get the help they need during one of the most important times and challenges of their lives. Now, if only their male partners wouldn’t be made to come off so badly in comparison, the reality show could be instructive viewing fare for female and male viewers alike!