The business of being born

So at Melissa's shower today we were talking about birth stories and midwives and such and I was reminded of the documentary "The Business of being born" and remembered the blog I wrote about it over the summer after seeing it. So I found the old blog and decided to re-post it! It's long, but very interesting!

Saturday, June 21, 2008
The Business of Being Born Current mood: enlightened
So I watched this documentary from Ricki Lake (whom I love!) called The Business of Being Born, about childbirth and all that is associated with it, and it was amazing! Anyone who has kids, who is thinking about having kids, or is just interested in learning about chidbirth should watch it (although I warn you, it is not for the squeamish, there are lots of live births, lots of naked women and bloody babies!). I have given birth 3 times, and was just amazed at some of the things that were brought to my attention in that video. It is promoting homebirths and Midwives, and explaining how our country is failing it's women in the birthing business. Just some basic facts from it are things like, that in every other developed major country out there that 70% of births are done by midwives, but in the US it is 5%. That the US has the second highest infant mortality rate though. That Dr's put you on a timetable and want to get it over and done with so they do all these things to speed up your labor which in turn puts the baby in distress which in turn makes it more likely that you will have a C-section. That Dr's do all these things to you without your consent and then chalk it up to 'its what was best for the baby' so you don't question it, when it was really what was best for the business, not the woman or child. Go to www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com and check out the trailer at least, but you should watch it. It makes some very valid points. My friend Melissa did the midwife thing for her first child, and I always thought that was kinda neat, but I always wanted drugs. But the thing is, I only got my epidural once out of my 3 births, and it didn't even really work that well, so really what was the point? I think I would love to use a midwife, but to give birth at a midwife facility located in a hospital. For one, I just want the safety of being close if something goes wrong, and another, I really like my hospital stay after birth. I like people taking care of me, feeding me, and taking care of the baby while I sleep. But on the other hand they wake you up every couple of hours for vitals, so I don't know. But although my Dr's, all 3 of them, were great Dr's, they were good at what they did, they just weren't really personable and friendly and none of them really took the time to get to know me, I was just another chart, and I HATED that about OB appointments. Here I was, pregnant and excited and it's just this wonderful thing, and the Dr's are like 'great, see ya next visit.' it just wasn't what I wanted it to be. Even in my last one, where my Dr is an amazing Dr, and I had all these complications and I felt like he did great, but he didn't make me feel like he actually cared about me, ya know? It was just his job. And it seems so true that they get in there and do what they want to do, not what might be best, or what you might want. Even with my quick births, they still did things to speed up my labor, which is just silly to me when I look back at it. I don't have a birth experience that I am 100% satisfied with, that turned out how I think it should be,ya know? But it makes sense that women with regular, low-risk pregnancies shoulds give birth at home with a midwife, where it is cheaper and more comfortable. And that OB/GYN's should do what they are best at, surgery and high-risk pregnancies. But then Dr's and hospitals wouldn't make near as much money, and THAT my friends is the bottom line. Not what is best for women and babies, but what is best for business. Now I don't assume that just because it is in a documentary that it is all true, but it rasies excellent points and gives you a springboard for your own research. It made alot of sense. I think giving birth is the biggest, most monumental thing a women can do in life. It's just amazing, and inspiring and wonderful. I think women love to share their birth stories because those are such meaning memories for them. I love hearing birth stories and I love sharing mine. So I think I might blog all 3 of my birth stories in the near future. Not only for my own enjoyment of retrospect and remembering, but to journal it to have, and to share it. I think I blog much more for myself than for anyone who reads it. It's my outlet, a way to write, to journal, to share. I used to keep a paper and pen journal, for forever, but the past few years I haven't. But I have blogged consistently for over 2 years now, and I keep them, I save them to my desktop and so I have a journal of sorts to look back on and know what was going on in my life at this point in time. Which is really why i journal in the first place, to look back and remember. Anyways, so I encourage all the moms to share their birth stories too! Blog about it, journal about it, share it! And go watch the Business of Being Born, wether you are a mom or not! Men, Women, everyone, it is very interesting!! Here are some of the news press releases that were on the website as well:

JUNE 18, 2008
At their annual meeting over the weekend, the American Medical Association voted on two Resolutions that seek to prevent home births and to increase MD control over midwives (click here to read Resolutions 205 and 239).
The initial draft of Resolution 205 included a personal attack on Ricki Lake and our film "The Business of Being Born" which read:
Whereas, There has been much attention in the media by celebrities having home deliveries, with recent Today Show headings such as "Ricki Lake takes on baby birthing industry: Actress and former talk show host shares her at-home delivery in new film..." (for full text of the original Resolution, scroll down to 205)
News outlets including the AP quickly picked up this story yesterday as it hit TMZ, E!, USA Today, Daily News, FOX, and Ricki will be featured on Good Morning America this weekend as well. (If you Google "Ricki Lake, AMA" you will see the bloggers are all over this!)
Filmmakers Abby Epstein and Ricki Lake teamed up with journalist and Pushed author Jennifer Block to pen the following response for the Huffington Post and also submitted a seperate Op-ed to the Washington Post this morning:
DOCS TO WOMEN: PAY NO ATTENTION TO RICKI LAKE'S HOME BIRTH
Ladies, the physicians of America have issued their decree: they don't want you having your babies at home with midwives.
We can't imagine why not. Study upon study have shown that planning a home birth with a trained midwife is a great choice if you want to avoid unnecessary medical intervention. Midwives are experts in supporting the physiological birth process: monitoring you and your baby during labor, helping you into positions that help labor progress, protecting your pelvic parts from damage while you push, and "catching" the baby from the position that's most effective and comfortable for you—hands and knees, squatting, even standing—not the position most comfortable for her.
When healthy women are supported this way, 95% give birth vaginally, with hardly any intervention.
And yet, the American Medical Association doesn't see the point. Yesterday it adopted a policy written by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists against "home deliveries" and in support of legislation "that helps ensure safe deliveries and healthy babies by acknowledging that the safest setting for labor, delivery, and the immediate post-partum period is in the hospital" or accredited birth center.
"There ought to be a law!" cry the doctors.
The trouble is, they have no evidence to back up their safety claims. In fact, the largest and most rigorous study of home birth internationally to date found that among 5,000 healthy, "low-risk" women, babies were born just as safely at home under a midwife's care as in the hospital. And not only that, the study, like many before it, found that the women actually fared better at home, with far fewer interventions like labor induction, cesarean section, and episiotomy (taking scissors to the vagina, a practice that according to the research should be obsolete but is still performed on one-third of women who give birth vaginally).
Which is why the American Public Health Association supports midwife-attended home birth. The British OB/GYNs have read the research, too, and have this to say: "There is no reason why home birth should not be offered to women at low risk of complications... it may confer considerable benefits for them and their families. There is ample evidence showing that labouring at home increases a woman's likelihood of a birth that is both satisfying and safe..."
The other trouble with the American MDs is that they seem to have lost all respect for women's civil rights, indeed for the U.S. Constitution – the right to privacy, to bodily integrity, and the right of every adult to determine her own health care. The "father knows best" legislation they are promoting could indeed be used to criminally prosecute women who choose home birth, say, by equating it with child abuse.
Research evidence be damned, the doctors want to mandate you to go to the hospital. They don't want you to have a choice.
We think they're spooked. The cesarean rate is rising, celebrities are publicizing their home births (the initial wording of the AMA resolution actually took aim at Ricki for publicizing her home birth on the Today Show!), people are reading Pushed and watching The Business of Being Born, and there's a nationwide legislative "push" to license certified professional midwives in all states (The AMA is against that, too, by the way).
The docs are on the defensive.
After all, birth is big business—it's in fact the most common reason for a woman to be admitted to the hospital. And if more women start giving birth outside of it, who will get paid? Not doctors and not hospitals.
"The AMA supports a woman's right to make an informed decision regarding her delivery and to choose her health care provider," the group said in a statement. But if it really supported women's birth choices it wouldn't adopt a policy condemning home birth and midwives.
Because if U.S. women are to have real birth choices, everybody needs to be working together to provide them, not engaging in turf wars at their expense.
Late yesterday, the AMA changed the wording on the final resolution 205 to omit the line about Ricki. (Hmmm...) They are now attributing the original language to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) who drafted the initial statement.
Stay tuned for more news to come....
The BOBB Team

Currently watching : The Business of Being Born Release date: 2008-05-06