At the first birth doula training Hannah Shealy ever attended, she was handed a tote bag with the words “birth is for p*ssies” on it. As she went to more classes and began working as a birth doula, she kept thinking, “This is not like the movies at all.” “A lot of the movies present birth in this aggressive and violent way,” Shealy says. “But I think all the stories leading up to the moment of a baby coming out of a body are the more interesting ones.”cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});As she continued working with expecting mothers, the idea of writing a show about labor, pregnancy, and motherhood flooded her mind. She realized that the portrayal of birth in the media often “terrifies” people who have never given birth before. More than creating realistic depictions of the psychological processes of birth, Shealy wanted to write something empowering.Seeking an “indie warrior” to produce Birth is For P*ssies, Shealy found the perfect match in Celine Sutter. After reading the script, Sutter felt inspired to step out of her comfort zone and take on the role of producer. In the first episode that premiered at SXSW as a part of the Independent TV Pilot Program, audiences saw stories of birth from two very different worlds. Shealy’s character, Maya, meets an affluent couple from Tribeca before getting thrown into her first real birth experience as a doula, working with a single mother from the Bronx with limited resources. Shealy describes birth as slightly “punk rock,” so she wanted a soundtrack to create a similar effect, leading her to singer-songwriter and alternative pop star Mikaela Mullaney Straus, better known as King Princess. The musician had a busy year, with the release of their most recent studio album, Girl Violence, hitting record store shelves in September of 2025. In hindsight, the title of this most recent record may have been an apt premonition of King Princess’ work on the soundtrack of for Birth is for P*ssies. “I remember … reading the script and hearing Hannah’s story of being a doula, and really knowing nothing about birth myself at all, and I was like, ‘God, birth is really punk rock,’” King Princess says. Shealy and the rest of the production team were open to their ideas for the soundtrack, which were inspired by listening to IDLES and deciding on a punk sound with “shrieky and feminine” elements, the artist says. “I was like, ‘Well, maybe it should be kind of punk,’ because it’s to juxtapose this thing that we all think is … so beautiful,” King Princess says. “No, it’s guttural, so maybe we should do something that sounds kind of punk and crazy.”The marriage of the show’s themes and its soundtrack is a reflection of how the musician views the union between the film and music industries, something they are excited to explore after this first experience soundtracking a piece of television. “I just don’t think you have film without music or music without film, I think that they’re always dapping up,” King Princess says. “For me, it has always been synonymous with part of the experience of enjoying a medium, that there are multiple mediums built into one.” Sutter knows presenting the medium of television at festivals is a “toss up,” but she was particularly excited about SXSW because of the state where the pilot would premiere at. “It’s not spoken about, and reproductive rights are under attack in this country, especially in Texas,” Sutter says. As it turns out, the audience responded well to not only the relevant themes of the pilot, but also the nuances and presentation of the project itself; the company of Birth is for P*ssies walked away from SXSW 2026 with the Audience Award for the Independent TV Pilot Competition – a promising indicator of the project’s future.The post A Labor of Love: Birth is for P*ssies Portrays ‘Guttural’ Human Experience With A Punk Soundtrack appeared first on Den of Geek.