Reaction Paper / Synopsis

What to expect when you’re expecting (2012)

What to expect when you’re expecting is a 2012 romantic comedy movie which talks about the
lives of five interconnected couples and how they puzzle up and go through different phases of
giving birth and the struggles it comes in the way to parenthood.
In a brief explanation, it talks about five women and their ups and downs in preparation to have a
baby. There is Wendy, who runs a breast feeding boutique and has been struggling to have their
little one for two years time and when she finally got the chance to become a mother, she was
head over heels euphoric and expected a happy and magical pregnancy. Yet throughout the first
phase of motherhood, she hadn’t expected it to be a lot more. She had shown a lot of
psychological changes like mood swings, prior because of hormonal changes and physiological
factors also occur. For example, at the start of her pregnancy, she felt joy, exhaustion, nausea and
also noted breast enlargement, heart burn and frequent urination which said were totally normal.
At the third trimester of her pregnancy, she had a talk in front of a crowd about the miracle of
childbirth and vented out a lot of her hard experiences like hemorrhoids, back acne, stretch
marks and frustratingly concluded that it wouldn’t be easy to have a baby.
Skyler, the mother-in-law of Wendy, was pregnant also and was having a twin. Yet, unlike
Wendy, Skyler sailed without any major issues during her pregnancy. It was shown that she had
it with ease and joy, a wonderful phase even when delivering the babies. She named them,
Laverne and Shirley.
There is Jules, a TV fitness trainer, and Evan, her dance partner who were celebrities and
discovered that they were having a baby during a show. Jules struggled to balance her job career
and being pregnant. It was also noted that she experienced muscle cramps, low blood pressure
and striae gravidarum. Also, they were massaging her legs, maybe because of edema. Eventually,
she gave birth to a girl named, Emerson.
Holly, a photographer, can’t conceive children and decided to adopt a child. Though she hadn’t
experienced being pregnant, she was still having a baby in their home, in their family which
affected her a lot more in her psychological changes like her emotional fragility, anxiety and
depression - the fear of their baby’s future and the uncertainty of being a good mother to her
child.
Lastly, Rosie, a food truck chef and Skyler’s cousin met Marco, which has a food truck also.
They had an unwanted pregnancy, was stunned to have a child yet eventually coped up with the
situation they were in. But, in one fearful occurrence, Rosie lost her baby. Devastated, she
frustratingly pushed Marco away and reasoned out that he wouldn’t have a baggage in his life
anymore. These emotions was one of the psychological effects of miscarriage. At the end of the
movie, they reconciled and eventually got back with each other.
Short Reaction
Individual

Castro, Kyla S.
All I can say is mothers are a wonderful gift from above and it takes a resilient and strong-faithed
woman to be a mother. Because pregnancy is hard, it could do changes in your mind and body.
All we can do is to give them the physical and emotional support they need. But also, in the
movie, the journey to fatherhood has struggles also. To sum it up, it makes me appreciate a lot
more about the significance of life, being a mother, a father, a parent, the joy and their struggle to
keep the family and their selves together.