'The Pitt' Is Showing Us What No Other Medical Drama Can Show, and That's What Makes It So Good (2025)

Table of Contents

'The Pitt' Shows an In-Depth, Graphic Childbirth in Episode 11 With Episode 11, 'The Pitt' Continues To Show What Few Medical Dramas Can Your Rating Cast

By Rebecca Schriesheim

Published 2 days ago

Followed

Thread 2

Link copied to clipboard

'The Pitt' Is Showing Us What No Other Medical Drama Can Show, and That's What Makes It So Good (2)

Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for The Pitt Episode 11.12 episodes into Max's The Pitt, and one thing has become crystal clear. The show is fearless, just like its doctors. Episode 12 has garnered lots of buzz for its gripping hour-long drama in the aftermath of a mass shooting, but episode 11 received equal buzz, but for a different reason. Created by R. Scott Gemmill, who was also a long-serving producer on NBC's ER, and produced by ER showrunner, John Wells, both know their way around an emergency room. With The Pitt, they're showing things they never could on a network hospital drama, and it's resulted in praise for its accuracy. Starring Noah Wyle as the senior attending emergency medicine doctor, the series broke down barriers in Episode 11, "5:00," showing an in-depth, graphic depiction of natural childbirth.

Wyle also starred in ER, which makes him no stranger to playing a doctor. With two extreme emergency cases going down in Episode 11, the one that made waves depicts a woman crowning and giving birth. This being Max, the scene shows everything: blood, guts, and all. Giving birth on film and television is nothing new, and it's often a taboo subject that is heightened with theatrics to make the most natural thing in the world overly dramatic. What makes The Pitt so special is that it uses it as an opportunity to chip away at the squirmish nature people have around childbirth and depict the crowning, delivery, and post-partum hemorrhage in full. Praised for its attention to detail surrounding emergency medicine, Episode 11 may just be its crowning jewel.

'The Pitt' Shows an In-Depth, Graphic Childbirth in Episode 11

Wyle stars as Dr. Robby Robinavitch, and the series follows him in real-time during his 12-hour emergency room shift at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital. Each hour presents several new patients and traumas for the doctors, and Tracy Ifeachor stars as senior resident Dr. Heather Collins, who often butts heads with Dr. Robby. The two have a romantic past, and tensions run high in Episode 11 when Collins informs Robby she's suffered a miscarriage during her shift after trying IVF. Dealing with several cases involving pregnancy, whether it's abortion or delivery, Dr. Collins's shift has been hard, to say the least. This kicks the emergency delivery of a newborn baby into high gear, with even more at stake, as Dr. Collins is determined not to lose another baby.

A very pregnant, Natalie (Enuka Okuma), comes into the ER with contractions and is the surrogate for her male best friend and his partner. With close-up shots of the vagina, birthing canal, and the baby's head peeking through, the delivery scene in Episode 11 is relentless, bloody, and groundbreaking. Audiences held their breath during the risky delivery, as one of the baby's shoulders gets stuck, which is then proceeded with a close-up shot of Dr. Collins reaching in to twist it free. Yes, it's blunt and frank in its depiction with no hand-holding, but that's emergency medicine for you. While it was a tough birth, coinciding with the immediate aftermath in which fan favorite, Dr. Mel (Taylor Dearden, has a stressful minute of getting the baby to breathe, it de-stigmatizes childbirth in the media.

'The Pitt' Finally Does a Medical Show Romance Right — and Yes, You Will Be Upset About It

Does anyone else need a hug after this episode?

Posts

With Episode 11, 'The Pitt' Continues To Show What Few Medical Dramas Can

Showing the second-by-second process of delivering Natalie's baby marks an important moment for the show. With themes of motherhood, birth, and loss throughout the season, this particular storyline drives home the extraordinary act of childbirth, and we get to see it all. Why it’s important that The Pitt included this is that this quite literally happens every day with emergency deliveries. Female nudity is often shown through the male gaze for purposes of arousal. With The Pitt, the female anatomy and nudity in this scene are scientific and necessary for audiences to learn what really occurs during childbirth. Its practical effects are fantastic and highly accurate, and both Wyle and Ifeachor's performances are expertly executed in their well-practiced choreography. But while watching the extremely graphic scene unfold, particularly afterward, when Natalie begins to hemorrhage and blood pools on the table, it seemed like a miracle the scene got made in the first place.

The fact that The Pitt airs on Max allows it to have nearly zero censorship on what they can or can’t show. Shows like Grey's Anatomy or Doc are limited to the confines of network television, but The Pitt is limitless. Yes, it can be hard to look at, but it’s what makes this medical series so unique compared to other medical shows that air on cable and network. Childbirth is something people like to steer clear of. It's messy, not glamorous, but it also cements the bravery every woman in the world faces and what they go through to deliver human life. Dr. Robby and Dr. Collins were able to save both Natalie and her baby in what felt like watching a horror TV show at times with so much blood, but it shattered a television glass ceiling in the process. The Pitt continues to smash barriers so we can fully understand and see what doctors in ERs go through every day, and that’s what makes it so special.

New episodes of The Pitt premiere on Thursdays on Max.