Superstore review: Childbirth is no miracle in Delivery Day

It turns out, childbirth isn’t so miraculous after all on this week’s episode of Superstore.

Amy and Dinah both go into labor this week on Superstore but the two women have very different experiences in the delivery room.

Dinah’s a week past her due date, much to Glenn’s annoyance, so the pair decides it’s time to induce her labor on this week’s episode, “Delivery Day.”

Of course, Amy can’t let Dinah have all the baby-making glory so she decides to go into labor three week’s early. Both women head to the same hospital, a cushy, clean sort of establishment filled with the kind of hot doctors you’d find on Grey’s Anatomy.

While Dinah’s putting on her sexiest camisole to seduce one of them, Amy’s discovering her terrible insurance plan doesn’t cover her stay. Her choices: fork up $20,000 — which is apparently what it costs to have a baby now — or head to a local clinic.

As hilarious as Amy’s time at the clinic is — she dubs it a hospital that looks like an escape room at one point — it’s hard to find the humor in such a crappy situation faced by so many women.

Childbirth is often described as this beautiful, once-in-a-lifetime experience. Maybe that’s true, but no one warns expectant mothers of the costs of bringing life into the world. Not just the outrageous hospital bills, but the pain and bodily trauma too.

While Amy’s discovering how screwed up our healthcare system is, Dinah finds out she’s going to need a C-section to deliver her own bundle of joy. Again, we get some hilarious moments as Glenn gets squeamish about all the blood and seeing Dinah’s entrails laid out on a medical table causes him to vomit in his operating mask, but the comedy doesn’t take away from the reality of the situation.

Giving birth, naturally or otherwise, in a plush hospital bed or dingy motel-like cot is tough. If this episode does anything, it shows the resilience of both Amy and Dinah. One woman forges ahead despite uncontrollable obstacles, resolving to deliver her baby despite unfavorable conditions, making do with what she’s got like so many women before her. The other overcomes her own fear of a surgical procedure and the aftermath that comes with it to give the gift of life to people she cares about.

It’s a beautiful, touching moment, one that closes this chapter of both Dinah and Amy’s storylines in a poignant, fitting way.

It also sets up, quite nicely we might add, the coming conflict between Amy and Jonah — who sticks around for the delivery, highlighting the positives of Amy’s plight, supporting her during her labor, and making nice with the baby’s father when he finally decides to show up. Even as she’s suffering through contractions and pushing another human being out of her body, Amy’s grappling with where she stands in her relationship to Jonah.

It doesn’t help that nearly every hospital orderly asks the pair to define their romance.

Amy decides they’re dating, that there are feelings involved, that it’s more than just sex, but that hesitancy and unsureness is bound to rear its ugly head as the season moves forward and Amy goes into “Mom mode.” As much as he cares about her, Jonah is not the father of Amy’s kid, Adam is. He’s going to have to sort out his place in this messy love triangle and knowing Jonah, he’ll make plenty of hilarious missteps along the way.

Here’s hoping the show doesn’t just forget about these babies, as plenty of other series are wont to do. A pregnancy is a great plot device, raising a baby on TV, less so. But Amy’s baby presents a real hurdle in her budding romance, one that feels needed after the will-they-won’t-they of it all has passed. Likewise, Dinah’s baby shows us a softer, more maternal side to the character and brings a new dimension to her relationship with her boss.

Raising these kids could add new layers to both women, something the show would only be better for.