The fact that Dr. Phil is looking for guests for a segment on homebirth is all the buzz on the internet lately. I seem to be in the minority in my views on this issue. This may sound abrupt, but basically I do not think any of us should spend one precious scrap of our energy thinking about, worrying about, or addressing this whole Dr. Phil show thing. I do not think it is worth our time.

Maybe I’m shortsighted here, but I’m not planning to think about it any more and I certainly haven’t been to the website to apply. I would not encourage anyone else to do so either. No one is going to have their attitudes towards birth, homebirth, midwives, whatever, made or broken by a segment on Dr. Phil. I don’t think this show actually has the potential to help OR hurt us. I think it is a flash in the pan, nothingness in terms of our energy or our cause. This is one of those “putting out fires” things that I like to try to avoid getting diverted into. It takes away from more important work we could be doing. Reminds me of Stephen Covey’s (First Things First) whole section about deciding whether things are either 1.urgent and important 2. important, but not urgent. 2. urgent, but not important. 3. not urgent and not important. I feel strongly this is an example of “urgent, but not important.”