AMC: Angie's Pregnant

On All My Children, Dr. Angela Hubbard has discovered she is pregnant. This should be a happy time, as for many years Angie believed her husband Jesse to be dead. They reunited and remarried, but life doesn’t go smoothly sometimes.

Unfortunately the circumstances of the pregnancy are bittersweet as Angela is going blind. Angie got into this predicament, by not using the proper techniques while dealing with a patient due to budget cuts. The treatment that was helping her keep her sight is experimental. While the medicine was fighting back the retinal damage, there is no indication that it wouldn’t hurt her baby. Angie decided that her unborn child was more important than her health and stopped taking the drugs. Jesse, who had no idea about her impending blindness, was overjoyed about the pregnancy until he found out her situation. Jesse would choose his wife over their unborn child, while Angie will sacrifice her sight and career to keep the baby healthy.

What I appreciate about this story so far is that for once there is no paternity question. Angie is the mom, Jesse is the dad. They may be older, and truthfully, I’m one of those who prefer that characters after a certain age to no longer have pregnancy stories. Angie at least has never gone through menopause or any other sort of illness that makes even the idea of her having a kid kind of risky. Also we didn’t spend years watching the character pregnant. Of course, AMC has seemed to completely forget that Jesse and Angie are grandparents. Their son Frankie has a child with Liza’s sister Mia, which I wish they would remember as it could add layers to the program overall.

Angie and Jesse are in love and want to support one another. While this puts their relationship in crisis, it has nothing to do with a romantic third party. There is no villain even if David Hayward’s financial cutbacks at the hospital played a part in Angie’s health issues. Of course, if and when Jesse finds out how Angela became blind, he may go off on Hayward. At this point, Angie wants to keep everything quiet. If people were to know, Angela would lose her place at the hospital. She just wants whoever is put in charge to be more of a help than a hindrance to the public.

Many questions can be asked in the framework of this story. Will Angie be totally losing her sight and no longer be a doctor? Will anyone in the family regret her decision? Will Angie even get to see the face of her child once they have been born? I can’t answer any of these yet, but hopefully in the end the Hubbards will persevere.