A reality show too far?

A reality show too far? New U.S. series films women giving BIRTH in the wild with no help from doctors

• Born in the Wild will follow young parents who take home birth to the next level by leaving even shelter behind
• The show was inspired by a viral YouTube video that's racked up 20M views and shows a woman giving birth in a tropical creek
• Producers say no first-time mothers will be allowed and that the TV crew's presence will increase safety for the mothers--but there will be no doctors
• Critics fear the show will start a dangerous trend that will endanger mother and child

By Joshua Gardner

A new reality show announced by Lifetime on Wednesday will follow young parents who forego not only hospitals during the birthing process, but also any shelter at all.

Born in the Wild will portray the men and women who decide that giving birth surrounded by only the beauty and serenity of nature and away from any doctors or modern interventions is the way to go.

Inspired by the huge popularity of a YouTube video that shows a woman giving birth in a tropical creek, some critics say such a show could kick off a dangerous trend that will endanger mothers and their babies alike.

Born in the Wild: Lifetime has announced they'll air a show that follows parents who decide to give birth in nature with no doctors

'What happens when the craziest experience of a woman’s life becomes truly wild, and soon-to-be parents decide to take on an unassisted birth in the outdoors?' wonders the press release.

Producers hope the answer is ratings gold as Americans accustomed to hyper sterile hospital births and who are only starting to learn of the rising trend in home births watch with rapt attention.

Lifetime says the show's subjects may not be first-time parents and will be closely watched by crews.

'We’re taking extreme precautions to make sure the mothers and the babies are safe,' Eli Lehrer, Lifetime’s senior VP and head of nonfiction programming, told Entertainment Weekly. 'Our presence at these births is going to make them far safer than if they were doing it on their own.'

Inspiring: The show was inspired by this woman's video, which showed her giving birth in a creek bed and has racked up 20 million views since February

However, critics saw the people who may feel compelled to 'try this at home,' as it were, won't have the luxury of a TV crew.

That means these impressionable souls could be in even greater danger, the position some would say the inspiration for the show was in when she documented for YouTube her own birth in nature.

YouTube user Birthinnature has just one video associated with her account, but that single offering has racked up an incredible 20 million views since it was posted in February.

It shows the slow process of a woman giving birth from start to finish, while surrounded by her family, in a creek bed.

'It has had a profound effect on my mothering and for my children especially,' the mother in the video said of the nature birth.

The subjects of Born in the Wild who are after that same motherly high have yet to be revealed, but Lehrer says there aren't all that many of them.

'I truly don’t think this is something people would enter into lightly,' he says. 'This is a very specific subset of people doing this.'

Dangerous: Critics fear the show will encourage parents to endanger their children but producers say only a small subset of people would ever choose to participate in such a birth