I Watched a Lifetime Movie

I’m not usually a glutton for punishment. I usually avoid any movies on Lifetime. They aren’t normally uplifting nor do they often portray women in ways that I think promote strength and individuality. (That said, Fried Green Tomatoes is on Thursday evening!) However, I had a moment of weakness in these last few weeks before the season premieres begin on the normal networks. Nothing was on television on Tuesday evening. The title of the movie caught my eye. So I selected it, started watching it and was immediately drawn into the story.

“My Baby is Missing” spoke to me on that pregnant woman level. As you may remember, I’m increasingly pregnant as these weeks takes us towards December. After the disappearance and Murder of the Ohio woman, an hour from our home, I’ve been on high alert regarding my personal safety and that of my unborn (yet very active!) son. The info on our Dish Network screen simply stated that a woman (also named Jenna, which was spooky in itself) was nearing her due date, a nurse came to her home to help her and, next thing she knew, she gave birth to a stillborn. However, the mother didn’t believe the story and began to investigate everything surrounding the day of the birth (and afterwards).

The info screen didn’t mention one thing about adoption. But it suddenly became clear. Oh, we were headed right into an unethical adoption agency scam story line! My Husband and I realized where it was heading at just about the same time. (Yes, we both watched it. That’s how lame television was on Tuesday evening!)

Quite frankly, if I had read the info on the website (or if the info one the website was on the info screen), I wouldn’t have watched it.

With her due date looming, Jenna gets a huge account for work, so she’s grateful when a nurse from the local hospital drops by to help her out. The next thing Jenna knows, she’s in the hospital, being told she gave birth to a stillborn. Jenna refuses to believe it. Although the hospital has no record of the nurse, the police suspect Jenna’s in denial. But Jenna’s pretty sure that nurse is using her kid in a fake adoption. The problem is tracking her down and proving it before her baby’s lost for good!

If I had seen the word adoption, I would have ran for the hills. I really don’t enjoy subjecting myself to extra adoption drama. My evenings are my free time (except when I’m reading something about adoption) away from “Adoption Land” and, having already been dragged into the movie, I silently cursed myself for having brought it into my living room, even unknowingly. That said, I kept watching. I really was hooked by that point.

The movie began a slow decline to the end in which we realize that the nurse delivered Jenna’s baby with the help of barbiturates (to knock her out), pitocin (to induce labor) and then left someone else’s stillborn baby, taking the healthy one with her to the adoption agency. It turns out the adoption agency was in financial trouble and was selling “healthy white babies” for exorbitant costs. Jenna’s little girl went for $225,000.00. As the scheme began to unravel, Jenna finally gets the police to believe the story. (Would you?) And she gets her baby back in the end.

I sat on the couch as the movie ended, discussing the general stupidity of the storyline with my Husband. Though, I must admit, part of me was glad to see an agency portrayed as the bad guy. Unethical agencies do exist within our own country. While I don’t know of too many who would go to these lengths (actually stealing the baby from the mother’s womb), I do know of some who are not above some of the other unsavory acts performed by the agency in this movie. Maybe the writer of the screenplay knew an agency that paid mothers off, charged families entirely too much or was just generally acting in an unethical manner. Whatever the case, maybe those pursuing adoption as a means to add to their families (who watched this atrocity) might consider doing some further research on their chosen agency after seeing the awful things that took place in this movie.

Furthermore, maybe expectant mothers considering adoption who may have watched it will be able to pick up on certain red flags in dealings with their own agency.

Or maybe everyone else just wasted two hours of their Tuesday night as well. Maybe the real point of being subjected to this movie was for me to be able to warn my readers not to watch it. It will melt your brain in new and awful ways!

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For more, read:

1. Another Adoption Movie with Big Name Stars.

2. Movie Refers to Adoption as “Unusual and Bizarre.

3. Adoption in the Movies: The Italian.

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Photo Credit.

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