It's been quite a while since I've written about pregnancy. You all have read my adventures in almost getting pregnant but this post is not about that. This is about the film The Business of Being Born.
For me, I always thought that having a baby had to be with an ObGyn. Maybe it was because all the drama that it carries - we women are told that it is a very dangerous thing so being at a hospital is the wisest thing to do. Hm. This documentary makes a point to not always think that is the rule.
If you are currently planning on having a baby soon - I am! - you must see this film. It revolves around a very bad experience that Ricky Lake (yes, I cringed a bit when I rented it but what the hell) had when she had her first childbirth. All the medications that the hospital gave her made it a very bad birth in her book. So right after that, she decided to research all that she could on giving birth, and what she found was so important that she decided to make a film about it.
The cool thing about this documentary is that they show, a little unbalanced but still, both sides of the story. There are some that advise strongly against midwives and there are some for having a baby at home without any drug whatsoever. For those who are for natural, completely natural childbirth say that there is something magical about feeling the process and even the pain that comes with it. Also, the drugs that hospital use - mixed with the business side of it (you go in the hospital, they want you in and out fast) - goes against nature. They explain the problems of the body positions that hospital use, the Pitocin which doctors love to give patients that have been in long hours of labor (remember, they want their hospital bed back, fast) and other key stuff actually impair the process instead of helping both mother and child.
For those who are for regular ObGyn-Hospital births, it is a safe way to give birth, get it over with and have your baby in no time, free of complications. Childbirth, according to them, is a simple thing. You get in and out fast, you have your baby and most of all, you don't suffer that much.
Trust me, a cool documentary indeed. At the end, you are left thinking... which one would I choose? It's not so black and white, the flick actually makes a point of exploring both sides of the coin in a very cool way.
So please, Netflix it, most of all if you are thinking about babies in the near future. Here's the trailer!
1 comments:
Medicine and healthcare is all about $$$, and there’s no bigger business than birth – a cash cow, if you will, since giving birth is just about a sure thing as death. (Hey, that’s funny: birth and death are very profitable businesses).
Anyway… I haven’t seen this film (but will Netflix it ASAP), but did research when we were pregnant, and yes, a hospital setting may seem safe, but there is nothing “normal” or natural about it. Healthy pregnancies and healthy babies have been produced since way before the science of ObGyn; it is believed that the reason why women lie on their back to give birth (as opposed to the more natural and ergonomically advantageous sitting position) stems from a Spanish king in medieval Spain, who wished to see his son exit his queen’s vagina.
Either way, pregnancy, childbirth and parenthood is a wonderful thing. It grounds you. It humbles you. And you realize that life, the world, is not about you.
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