In the first episode of season six of Total Bellas, viewers catch up with the extremely pregnant Bella sisters, Nikki and Brie, who are trying to adjust to a new lifestyle during the coronavirus pandemic.

Nikki and her fiancé, Artem, are stranded with Brie, her husband Bryan, and their daughter Biride in their home in Phoenix, Arizona.

Meanwhile, Nikki and Artem maintain a primary residence in Los Angeles and therefore all of Nikki’s doctors are located there. This presents a problem as Brie wants her sister to remain in Phoenix so that the two can have their babies the same hospital and go through the first days post delivery together.

Also, Brie feels as though Nikki and Artem aren’t prepared for the new lives on which they are about to embark. Apparently, before her first pregnancy, Brie and her husband did everything possible to prepare for their new arrival. Their preparations included reading books, taking classes, and extensive research into all things baby and pregnancy related.

At this point, I like to point that everyone prepares for major life events in different ways. I’m sure that if I were to get pregnant I would have a different method of preparing for it than my sister would. Furthermore, I’m pretty sure I would have a different method of preparing for it than almost everybody reading this.

Maybe Brie should try watching a little more PBS, didn’t Mr. Rogers have some kind of lesson about how everyone is different, but that’s okay? Also, I wonder what makes Brie think that she is ultimate authority on all things maternity? I’m sure that all those books that Brie read had multiple different opinions about how one should handle everything baby related.

So, ultimately, Brie and Bryan decided to put Nikki and Artem through and obstacle course doing everything related to baby, from swaddling to favor changes diaper changes. I’m not sure how instructive it was, but it was certainly entertaining. The point of the obstacle course appeared to be to show Nikki and Artem how unprepared they truly were, and therefore make them feel as though they needed to stay in Phoenix to receive expert parenting advice from Brie and Bryan.

This brings me to another question, we live in a world full of technology designed to help loved ones connect from afar. Why didn’t Brie realize that if Nikki had issues and needed advice, she could simply pick up a phone, text, or use FaceTime?

However, the point ended up being moot, because Nikki’s insurance won’t pay for medical care outside of the state of California. The Bellas pregnancy related dramas were far from over because while undergoing a routine checkup in Phoenix, doctors discovered that Nikki’s baby, Matteo, might possibly have something wrong with his heart. Understandably alarmed, Nikki and Artem rushed back to Nikki’s own obstetrician in Los Angeles, who after redoing the scans that Nikki had had done in Phoenix said that the spec that the doctors in Phoenix had seen was really nothing to worry about.

Meanwhile, the Bella family matriarch, Kathy is experiencing some health issues of her own, having recently been diagnosed with Bells Palsy. Of course, her daughters saw this as a perfect opportunity to add to their mom stress, even if they did so without meaning to.

The Bellas memoir, Incomparable, reached bookshelves at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. However, Nicole had been keeping some extremely important secrets from her mother, which Kathy only read about with the rest of the world in the book.

It turns out that Nikki Bella was a victim of rape twice as a teenager. I understand that it is difficult for adults to talk about the rape experiences, and can only imagine how much more difficult it would be to discuss something so devastating as a teen. Furthermore, I understand that it takes a while for rape victims to feel comfortable discussing their issues with close family members, and can sometimes even take years.

I also think that it was extremely brave of Nikki to discuss her experiences in such a public forum. I applaud her for doing so, and hope that many more women and girls will be encouraged to do so because of her story. However, I still don’t think she should have allowed her mom to find out about her rape at the same time as the rest of us. I have never been in this situation, and probably shouldn’t judge.

It looks as though this season of Total Bellas will be just as full drama as all the rest of the seasons have been.