Tlc a Baby Story Where Are They Now

The Untold Truth Of TLC's A Baby Story

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Who remembers TLC's A Baby Story? Every bit the home of such reality Television receiver fare equally Hither Comes Honey Boo Boo and 90 Day Fiancé , it'southward easy to forget that TLC was once an acronym for The Learning Channel, originally founded in 1972 by NASA and the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare to circulate educational programming.It was during its more-highbrow era that TLC debuted the groundbreaking documentary series chronicling birth.

A Baby Story launched in 1999, with TLC's website saying the bear witness "follows couples through their final weeks of pregnancy, joins them in the commitment room and through the outset weeks of a new life" as they "share their experiences and all the emotions they feel when they outset greet their newborn."According to company behind the testify, Pie Boondocks Productions, A Baby Story "is much more a television show." The website explained, "It is an emotional experience that educates and enlightens its viewers well-nigh the miracle of childbirth on a personal level."

As pop as the show was, there's still a lot that viewers don't know. Read on to learn the untold truth ofA Baby Story.

TLC's A Baby Story was trailblazing reality Boob tube

Co-ordinate to Pie Boondocks Productions, which created the show, each half-hour episode of TLC'sA Baby Story "follows one expectant couple through the highs, lows and comic moments of pregnancy, labor and bringing home the baby." While the concept was deceptively simple, it was as well somewhat radical given concerns that viewers would be offended past pregnancy, dating back to the days whenI Love Lucyconcealed the pregnancy of its star (viaThe Washington Post).

In a 2002 interview with Canada'due south The Globe and Mail service, TLC's then-general managing director Jana Bennett credited the burgeoning popularity of the video camera, encouraging expectant parents to moving-picture show their experiences, for ushering in a societal attitude shift that allowed the give-and-take "significant" (once banned on goggle box) to replace the more than genteel "expected." This, she said, opened the door forA Baby Story — and likely the flurry of pregnancy-themed series that followed, ranging from I'm Pregnant and... to Nativity Stories."What we're talking near here is a fundamental drama: the struggle of birth," explained Bennett of the show's appeal. "It's a huge threshold for anyone to cantankerous. It's scary and rather mysterious. All those things make it quite appealing."

What it's like to have a birth filmed for TLC's A Infant Story

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Equally TLC'southwardA Baby Story's popularity grew, and so likewise did the number of expectant parents eager to be participants. Withal, unless your last proper noun is Kardashian, exposing every aspect of ane's private, personal life to a camera crew is an understandably weird experience. This was certainly the case for the reality Television pioneers who agreed to be filmed forA Infant Story, and was especially true when it came to filming labor — not exactly whatsoever woman's most glamorous moment. Yet amazingly plenty, couples actually wanted to open their lives toA Baby Story during what was arguably some of their most intimate times.

"The tapings were a picayune time-consuming and distracting from the pregnancy," Chip McKay toldTimes Herald-Record of him and wife Allison being followed by a camera crew as the due engagement approached. "They filmed me being prepped, the Iv being inserted. There were interviews with my doctors," said Allison, pointing out that the crew was very respectful when it came to giving the couple privacy when they needed it.

"They allow united states continue those private moments private," Chip said. "They were very cooperative."

An NFL star and his wife were featured on TLC's A Babe Story

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Among the numerous couples to open their lives to TLC'sA Baby Story were New York Giants place-kicker Jay Feely and wife Rebecca, who shared their pregnancy, birth, and postnatal experiences with millions of viewers. While many people would understandably want to keep those moments to themselves, the Feelys felt it was important that others witness their nascency story for securely personal reasons.

As they told The New York Times, the couple's starting time pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. Their second, which was filmed for the show, resulted in daughter Pamela, named for Rebecca Feely'due south sis, who died of a brain aneurysm at 18 when Rebecca was but a toddler. "At that place is and so much more to life than football, and we just wanted to highlight that," Rebecca Feely told theTimes. "Whether it's the death of a sibling or the nascency of a baby, information technology's such [an] opportunity to come across God's paw in it, the bigger picture show in life." Added Jay, "It'southward just some other avenue, another opportunity for us to take an touch on people, hopefully share with people, and express our faith through the beauty of having a child."

More than than 300 births were documented on TLC's A Baby Story

While Pie Boondocks Productions declared that 200 births were documented on TLC'sA Baby Story, that number afterwards ballooned to more than than 300. WithA Babe Story debuting in 1999, information technology doesn't take a math whiz to figure out that some of those babies are at present old enough to be heading to higher. All those births contributed to A Baby Storybecoming television'due south summit-rated cablevision show for women 18 to 35, a remarkable accomplishment for a serial that paved the way for the baby-related programming that followed.

Amidst these was TLC's World Birth Day, a two-hour spinoff special that ran on New year 2002, showcasing births from all over the globe. "Babies are built-in in cities around the world: In the U.South., U.G., Brazil, Ethiopia, Bharat, Federal republic of germany, China and Mexico," noted IMDb. "World Nascency Twenty-four hour period chronicles the medical and social story of the outset solar day of the balance of the lives of babies who share the same birthday simply will pb very dissimilar lives." TLC full general manager Jana Bennett told The Globe and Post thatWorld Nativity Day was TLC'southward highest-rated special effect ever at the fourth dimension.

TLC's A Baby Story was defendant of dumbing downward the complexities of birth

While the growing popularity of TLC'due southA Baby Story may have encouraged a new openness about pregnancy, there were those who felt the show was actually duping women into a false sense of complacency almost the risks of childbirth. "I idea I had a skillful handle on information technology," blogger and activist Katie Vigos told the Deseret Newsabout the expectations of labor she gleaned fromA Baby Story. "The only reference I had was what I'd been exposed to in the media, and they're all alike — a woman on her back, screaming."

That was the tip of the iceberg. Academics placedA Baby Story nether an analytical microscope, with the University of Minnesota's Emily M. Winderman publishing a paper inFeminist Media Studies criticizing the bear witness for "offering a standard episodic structure for understanding a circuitous nascency experience," substantially accusing the series of giving women specific expectations for an feel that tin can be far less anticipated than depicted on screen.

TLC's A Baby Story educated viewers about culling birthing techniques

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If TLC'sA Infant Story gave some women unrealistic expectations about childbirth, the show also offered cognition they might otherwise non have attained, specially in the surface area of alternative birthing methods. This was the case for Dawn and Mike Manning, who agreed to have their son'south birth filmed for the show afterwards deciding to deliver their baby via "HypnoBirthing," a technique that "emphasizes natural childbirth and teaches self-hypnosis techniques to combat fright and pain during labor."

After the traumatic birth of her first child — which required an epidural, forceps, and stitches — Dawn Manning sought other options when she became pregnant a 2nd time, and wanted to get the bulletin out to other expectant moms by sharing her birth journeying onA Baby Story. "I thought it would be a keen way to document his nascence and a manner to let women know they have more choices," Dawn told the Beverly Review, insisting that women deserve to take the opportunity to make an "informed choice" about commitment options. She noted, "There's a lot to exist said about women having a choice. The first time I gave birth, I didn't know my options."

TLC's A Baby Story broke new basis by featuring a lesbian couple

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In the belatedly 1990s and early on 2000s, LGBTQ representation on television was rare but on the rising, and Television taboos were shed in 2001 when TLC'sA Baby Storyshowcased its first-ever gay female couple.

In a 1999 interview with LGBTQ publication The Advocate, Pie Town Productions president Tara Sandler and vice-president Jennifer Davidson — an openly gay couple themselves — said they were seeking a lesbian couple for the bear witness but hadn't however found one, expressing their worries about whether viewers had reached that level of acceptance. "I would really be concerned, to exist honest, for a lesbian or gay couple going on camera with a baby," said Davidson. "I retrieve that pushes also many buttons in this country."

Things had clearly inverse just two years afterward when the testify finally introduced its get-go lesbian couple, Ali and Kim, withThe Advocate writing almost "their process of having children through the help of a fertility specialist and an anonymous donor ... as they programme for a second girl — from the same sperm donor, so the children would be biological siblings..."

How TLC's A Babe Story led to a branded-production bonanza

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The success of TLC'sA Babe Story non merely led to a variety of baby-themed shows hitting the airwaves, but it as well created an opportunity for TLC to generate boosted revenue in some unanticipated means. A 2010 printing release from Discovery Networks, corporate parent of TLC, announced the inflow of TLC Infant, an "extension of the network's pop baby programming" that was designed to "provide parents with all the essentials to intendance for and enhance their new package of joy."

In this new venture, TLC partnered with Large Tent Entertainment to develop "a comprehensive consumer products plan for TLC Babe that represents practical items for 'the everyday life, made simpler.'" Elizabeth Bakacs, vice president of licensing for Discovery commerce, shared, "TLC Baby is a natural extension for the TLC brand," adding, "New and expecting moms take connected emotionally with TLC'southward programming because it showcases real-life experiences and helps ready them for life with a new baby. Now the TLC Baby make will offer viewers practical, high-quality products that they can utilise in their everyday lives at dwelling house, from a brand they trust."

TLC'southward A Baby Story spawned a spinoff

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As the evidence's original production company, Pie Town Productions, pointed out on its website, A Baby Story was "the #1 rated cable television program for women aged 18-35 in its first season on TLC."  Soon enough, TLC launched a spinoff that focused on the flow immediately after childbirth, following couples in the crucial hours subsequently welcoming their child into the earth.

Bringing Dwelling Babypremiered in 2005, with Idiot box.com describing the testify equally focused on "those first 36 hours at home" with a new baby as fledgling parents dive into the deep end when they're suddenly forced to effigy out everything from how to properly change diapers to breastfeeding to trimming a newborn's fingernails — usually with in-laws and relatives hovering over their shoulders to let them know that they're doing it all wrong. "It's part packet of joy [and] role packet of nerves when you lot'reBringing Home Baby," noted Television set.com.

Bringing Dwelling house Babyproved to be a moderate hit for TLC. While not every bit successful every bit TLC'sA Baby Story, the evidence however enjoyed a multi-year run until its cancellation in 2009.

TLC's A Baby Story fabricated a comeback in a whole new way

Several years after the bear witness left the air in 2010, TLC'sA Baby Story was apparently still fondly remembered by TLC's programming executives. In 2016, TLC figured out a mode to engineer a comeback for the bear witness thanks to the rising of social media. The idea: take viewers up close and personal by presenting an actual alive nascence as it happened — not on television, just live-streamed on Facebook.

"TLC reinventedA Baby Story by bringing a alive nativity to Facebook in an unprecedented event early on this morning withA Babe Story Alive," said TLC in a 2016 press release merely hours afterwards live-streaming an actual nascency on its Facebook page for the first time ever. "The unbelievable and raw emotion was captured directly from [the couple'due south] bedroom in Virginia giving the viewers an uncut, unedited, existent-fourth dimension view of this milestone moment."

According to TLC, the two videos of the birth that were later on posted on Facebook "garnered just under fifty,000 views in 12 hours." TLC noted, "Viewers watching live commented by the hundreds with words of encouragement and well wishes for the family."

The success of the first live-streamed Baby Story launched a 2nd

TLC's 2016 experiment withA Baby Story Live was then successful that a second birth was live-streamed a short time later, with videos of the nascency then posted on the channel'south Facebook folio. EquallyThe Wrap reported, the nine videos chronicling the ten-hour labor of adult female named Angela delivering daughter Gabriella racked up 279,969 views.

"A Baby Story Live is a great extension of TLC's promise to bring existent, raw and emotional content to all of our platforms," Scott Lewers, senior vice president of TLC's Multi-Platform Programming and Digital Media segmentation, told The Wrap. "Being on the ground for the consequence with the team to capture more eight hours of Facebook Live footage culminating in the miraculous moment of baby Gabriella'southward birth was truly remarkable. It was incredibly heartwarming to see all the encouragement and positive feedback from viewers across North America."

A few days after the live-streamed nascence, added The Wrap, TLC broadcasted a "linear version" for its Goggle box viewers. Emphasizing the difference between television set and social media, the ten-hour labor was edited downwards to a shorter, more Tv set-friendly length.

TLC's A Baby Story was big with teens

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During its run,A Infant Storywas one of TLC's most enduringly popular shows, but it had also somehow developed a big post-obit amid an unexpected demographic: teenage girls. Co-ordinate to a 2002 report from theLos Angeles Times,A Baby Story and other shows on TLC's daytime lineup, includingA Wedding Story, A Dating Story, A Makeover Story, and A Personal Story, were, oddly enough, attracting an outsized caste of teen viewers. In fact, the Times pointed to data from Nielsen Media Research indicating that TLC actually saw a year-to-year increase of 7 percent in female viewers aged 12 to 29 when it came to viewership ofA Baby Story and other shows within its daytime programming block.

"My best friend and I would watch the shows after school — then nosotros'd go dorsum to school and tell people about it and they'd be similar, 'What are you talking about?'" tenth-grader Chasne Turner told the Timesof how she and her friends became hooked on the series. "Eventually, we'd come up to school and everybody would be talking about, 'Did you spotter?" She added, "'It's definitely the topic of chat."

TLC's A Babe Story may be over but fans tin can still spotter online

TLC'south A Infant Story stopped producing new episodes in 2010, simply the show never actually went away. In fact, fans of the series can still find episodes on YouTube, the TLC website, and Amazon Prime.

One of the episodes available on the TLC site at the time of this writing features the arrival of Paris Angelina Miller, whose 2008 birth was chronicled for the series after producers approached obstetrician Dr. Nicholas P. Roussis, every bit reported pastSILive. "They had reached out to me in one case before, a few years agone, in Brooklyn, simply it had been some fourth dimension since they had filmed a family unit on Staten Isle, so they asked if I could reach out to one of my Staten Island patients," he explained.

Expectant couple Hazel and Keith Miller agreed to participate, assuasive camera crews to film them during medical appointments, at abode with their 4 children, and, ultimately, in the commitment room. "Information technology was a little hectic for the states, but it was all very heady," Miller shared. "We're grateful that our family unit volition have this wonderful record of Paris and her birth to return to over the years."

TLC checked in with families from A Infant Story in Where Are They At present updates

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A Baby Story'southward interest in the families profiled on the show didn't end later the babies were born. According toTelevision receiver Guide, a number ofA Infant Story: Where Are They Now specials aired betwixt 2006 and 2008, communicable upwardly with families whose childbirth experiences were documented on TLC'sA Baby Story. These specials, informed TV Guide, revisited "families featured on A Babe Story, with updates on their progress adjusting to life with their newborns." I of these couples was the Addys of Port Jervis, N.Y., who originally appeared in a 2004 episode and were revisited in aWhere Are They Now special in 2006.

Speaking with the Times Herald-Record, mom Tonya Addy revealed her central motivation behind lettingA Baby Storypicture show the delivery of her twins, Elijah and Aidan, for the episode, marking the first time the evidence had every documented the birth of twins. "I applied to be on the show because we figured information technology would exist a cracking manner to go a high-quality videographer into the delivery room," she explained. "What better fashion to record this issue?"

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Source: https://www.thelist.com/175904/the-untold-truth-of-tlcs-a-baby-story/

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