Birth in America has undergone a transformation in the past fifty years, moving from the home into the hospital and shifting from the care of midwives to the hands of surgically trained doctors. Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein's documentary, The Business of Being Born, examines how this shift happened and what it means for a woman giving birth in America today
Birth in the Hospital
When women give birth in the hospital, as most do in North America today, the business-like nature of the hospital environment stacks the odds against a woman having a natural, drug-free birth. The use of painkilling drugs and epidurals during labor often starts a cascade of interventions such as the use of pitocin, additional painkillers, and then a vacuum assisted delivery or cesarean to quickly deliver a baby who has gone into distress due to the intense nature of pitocin contractions.
Home Birth and Midwifery Care
By taking birth back into the home or a birthing center and back into the care of a trained, professional midwife, a woman's chance of having a natural birth increases dramatically. Many men and women don't hear about midwives until they start researching birth options, but midwives are trained experts in normal birth. The film follows a midwife as she attends several successful home births.
Ina May Gaskin, Michel Odent and Other Pioneers of Natural Birth
The interviews in The Business of Being Born include OB/GYNs in major hospitals, practicing midwives and experts on natural birth such as Ina May Gaskin and Michel Odent. Odent speaks eloquently about the importance of the cocktail of love hormones released during natural birth, and the necessity of preserving this natural mechanism, which ensures a strong bond between mother and child. Many women find breastfeeding and bonding more of a challenge following a cesarean birth, and the long term societal effects of this for the nearly 30% of mothers and babies who experience a cesarean today is not known.
Birth and Feminism
The move towards the use of painkilling drugs during childbirth was enthusiastically embraced by the early feminist movement, but as more is learned about the effects of those drugs it is now clear that both mother and baby have a better chance at a healthy vaginal birth and successful bonding and breastfeeding if drugs are not used. Many women in The Business of Being Born talk about their natural childbirth experience as being one of the most empowering and transformative experiences of their lives. The natural birth movement honors the importance of this monumental moment in a woman's life, and a woman birthing freely at home is experiencing the pain on her own terms instead of her doctor's.
The Business of Being Born is an invaluable resource and can benefit every woman planning a birth. By portraying drug-free births as normal, healthy and within the reach of the average woman, this film empowers women to take responsibility for their birth experience and shows that a low-risk birth does not need to be a medical event in a hospital. Hospitals and surgically trained obstetricians do save the lives of high-risk babies and mothers, but low-risk births are safe in the care of midwives. The Business of Being Born is available for online rental and purchase at their new website mybestbirth.com
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