How House Of The Dragon let itself down with traumatic birth scenes

This article contains depictions of miscarriage and labour which some readers may find distressing

Ask any Game Of Thrones fan, and they'll probably tell you House Of The Dragon flourished under the pressure of expectations. Thanks to the complex and messy family dynamics, the fire-breathing dragons and, perhaps above all else, the strong female leads, fans are desperately looking ahead to the already-confirmed second season.

But if there's one thing that let the first instalment of the series down, it's the traumatic and violent depiction of childbirth. Four separate episodes (out of a possible 10) contained scenes of women in graphic and sometimes gratuitously painful labour, almost always concluding in tragedy.

An early scene in episode one showed a brutal C-section, resulting in Rhaenyra's mother dying while giving birth. We were later introduced to adult Rhaenyra (played by Emma D'arcy) in the throws of an agonising and long labour, while Daemon’s wife Laena decided to sacrifice herself to her dragon as oppose to bleed out during child birth.

And then, of course, the season finale, which topped things off in the trauma department with a graphic scene of complete distress. In it, Rhaenyra miscarries following the shock of Aegon's coronation, giving birth to a stillborn child, before heartbreakingly cradling her daughter in her arms.

The scene is horrific and unnecessary, with the plot development arguably not relying on such distressing detail. As one viewer on social media put it, "The miscarriage/stillbirth/maternal death porn that is season one [of] House of The Dragon is appalling. It has been beyond gratuitous. Birth trauma is triggering for a lot of people and this show just wallows in it, for what?"

Someone else said, "House of the Dragon really made the women on this show have them most painful and gut wrenching birth scenes in all of TV history." As another put it, "
The child birth scenes in House of the Dragons are insufferable and unnecessary."

Defending the show's decision to include so many graphic scenes - specifically the last one - showrunner Ryan Condal told Deadline it was meant to link "the horrific birth that goes terribly wrong in the pilot with another horrific birth that goes wrong in the finale."

He continued, "Birth is a battlefield and now Rhaenyra finds herself at war and this is her going through her own battle. She’s having a miscarriage. She knows she’s not far enough along in her term that she’s going to have a viable infant. It’s medieval times. There is no premature baby unit in the maester’s hospital.”

While it's true that pregnancy can involve complications, it's questionable why a show that finally sees two strong, powerful women glistening at the forefront needs to feature quite so many confronting depictions of pain.

If you're looking for support or more information about premature births, stillbirths or miscarriage, Tommy's have a free helpline 0800 0147 800 (open 9-5, Monday to Friday). There's also a Facebook group.

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