“I’m not going to be kissing my girlfriend while my wife is in labor!” – Kody
Christine is a week overdue, and she and Kody head to the doctor to see about whether she should be induced or not. When they realize that it’s Kody’s thirteenth kid on the thirteenth of the month, it’s decided: she’ll have the baby today! She talks to the doctor and they set her up with the inducing drugs. Back home, Robyn takes all the younger kids to her house to wait, and she and Janelle keep them occupied with a giant dollhouse that Robyn has been saving in storage for when she had a big family and a spacious house. Which she has now! And a dozen kids to play within it as well. Kody goes home to get clothes and update everyone, and while he’s gone, Christine’s water breaks and he heads back to the hospital with Aspyn, Christine’s oldest, who wants to see the baby being born. Christine pushes for less than ten minutes, all without pain because of her first epidural, and new baby Truley comes into the world with a perfectly round head and a whole bundle of super-cuteness. As soon as they’re cleared, the entire family comes down to the hospital to see the new baby: all 20 of them.
The wives all say that mostly they have their babies at home, and generally that’s the way for polygamists because of the complications of explaining multiple (and illegal) marriages and family relationships in something as official and full of paperwork as a hospital. It’s one of those things I never much thought about until they put it out there — the things we take for granted that have to be different for someone in such a different sort of lifestyle. Also, the fact of home births combined with the fact of home schooling all feeds into the closed-society that’s sort of forced people in this lifestyle to be separate from the rest of the world. It’s added to the idea that all polygamists are weird, tyrannical, ignorant, abusive, and all the other ideas that manage to get spun into episodes of crime shows.
And I can’t help but wonder if that’s part of the goal: this family is being very open and very honest with how things work, but in the past everything was probably intentionally set up to separate them from the rest of the world, to build places where everyone is the same. Following the same rules, living the same lives, and all of it geared toward a life that isn’t the mainstream. It’s got to be easier than trying to live differently in the middle of the regular society, right? But that means all their babies are born naturally and at home, with the help of a midwife, unless something is amiss beforehand and they have to go to a hospital.
It was interesting how the labor was handled. The hospital was very nice about their situation, and not one of them seemed poised to call in the cops (although they haven’t said anything about the subsequent marriages being legal ones, and therefore illegal — if they were just in the church, they should be safe from the law, shouldn’t they?). And Christine, this being her sixth child, knows how she delivers and what she can expect. She was very upbeat, very positive, and when they give her the epidural, she’s all ready to have more kids because this was so painless and easy!
But the best part was everyone rallying around the new baby. 20 people all together in one little room, welcoming this new baby to the family. All the moms crying like she’s their own, all the kids universally happy about having another sister. Maybe they just edited out sibling rivalry, but everyone seemed really pleased, and what are the chances of so many kids not being jealous? It was kind of lovely.
Further thoughts on Sister Wives, “Third Wife in Labor”:
* There’s this sweet framing moment where they show the crib all ready for Truley’s arrival, and at the end, they show her, a lot bigger than when she’s born on screen, happy and healthy in that same bed.
* Life is busy with the wives, since Christine’s a week overdue, Meri and Kody’s twentieth anniversary is coming up, and after that is Robyn’s wedding! These last episodes of the season will be full!
* Apparently, even though she’s a little overwhelmed, Robyn is taking to the family well. She comes from a broken family, and she had that failed marriage before, so this big, functional family makes her so happy she cries again!
* Kody and Christine snuggling in the hospital bed while they wait for the doctor is also very sweet. The family is so big, it must be nice to be able to spend some time alone, even when it’s in a hospital and on camera.
* It’s brought up that Meri only managed one baby when she wanted eight — how strange must it be to be the one that can’t have more kids? But it also sort of explains why a man would need other wives, doesn’t it? Back in the day, when pioneers needed a lot of kids, having a wife who couldn’t breed would be a major disadvantage.
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.