"The Business of Being Born"

This week I got to watch “The Business of Being Born,” courtesy of Netflix. :) I thought it would be fun to write down my impressions and share some of what I learned from the film.

First, for a little background, this film is a documentary about the maternity care system in the US. The point of the film was to expose some of the problems with the current system, as well as to give women some good information on the alternatives (midwifery care--homebirth or birthing centers). Overall, I felt the film was very eye-opening in a lot of ways. And it did a good job highlighting the positive things about OBs/hospital birth while at the same time exposing the not-so-good things. I didn’t come away with the feeling that they were completely knocking hospitals, but rather trying to show women that there are good alternatives, and that there is a lot more chance of receiving unwanted (and often unneeded) interventions in a hospital than there is with the midwifery model of care. Here are some of the statistics I jotted down as I watched the film:

~ Midwives attend 70% of births in Europe and Japan, and less than 8% of births in the US.
~The US has the 2nd worst newborn death rate in the developed world (that’s pretty scary).
~In 1900, 95% of US births took place at home. In 1938, half of the US births took place at home. By 1955, less than 1% of US births took place at home, and it remains the same percentage today.
~Since 1996, the rate of c-sections has risen by 46%. In 2005, one out of every 3 births in the US was a c-section. (There is something very wrong with this picture!)
~The US spends 2 times as much money per birth as any other country.
~People in our culture are likely to spend more time researching a major purchase such as a car, TV, camera, etc. than they do on researching their birth options.

I think one of the scariest things to me was the huge increase in c-sections. There is no way that that many c-sections are necessary. At least one of the OBs interviewed for the film admitted that there is a definite link between inductions and c-sections, which I found very interesting.

There were a few OBs that they interviewed who were very cool with homebirth and midwifery, and a couple others who had quite a negative attitude to the whole idea. One of them even said something to the effect that telling someone it was OK to have a homebirth was like telling them it is OK to not wear their seatbelt.

It was neat to see the interviews with midwives (particularly Ina May Gaskin, one of America’s most famous midwives) and to see their compassion and dedication to helping women have the kind of birth they want.

There is no way I can sum up the whole film in this post (since I would probably put you all to sleep anyway!), but I was really glad to have the opportunity to see it and I definitely recommend it. Even if you are not the least bit interested in homebirth, I think you would benefit from the information presented. A quick “disclaimer” just because: This was not at all a Christian film, and there is a bit of language scattered throughout (disappointing but not surprising). Also, there are several real births shown on the film, so it’s not something you would likely want to watch when your kids were around, and some husbands (like mine) may not be comfortable watching those parts, as well. These are not the “G-rated” vantage points of birth that you will see on “A Baby Story.” :)

I was glad to be able to see this at this point in my pregnancy, because it helped me get even more excited about my next birth. No, I don’t love the pain of labor . . . but I do find birth so interesting, and I love the end feeling of having just “conquered the world.” :) I really love watching births and reading/hearing others’ birth stories, too--maybe I’m weird, but it helps me as I gear up for my next labor and I just find the whole process so fascinating. It is so amazing how God designed us to take part in the miracle of bringing new life into the world!!

For more info, you can check out The Business of Being Born website, or this movie review from the NY Times.