Today I took the afternoon off from work and went to see a movie recommended by my Bradley instructor called The Business of Being Born. The film, a documentary, was produced by Ricky Lake and directed by Abby Eppstein and has been called "The Inconvenient Truth of childbirth." I don't know if I would go that far since it wasn't quite as cohesive; in fact, I found a lot of gaps in the story line. The basic premise from the film's website is as follows:
Birth: it’s a miracle. A rite of passage. A natural part of life. But more than anything, birth is a business. Compelled to find answers after a disappointing birth experience with her first child, actress Ricki Lake recruits filmmaker Abby Epstein to examine and question the way American women have babies.
The film interlaces intimate birth stories with surprising historical, political and scientific insights and shocking statistics about the current maternity care system. When director Epstein discovers she is pregnant during the making of the film, the journey becomes even more personal.
Should most births be viewed as a natural life process, or should every delivery be treated as a potentially catastrophic medical emergency?
A couple of things about the film. First of all, Ricky Lake was compelled to produce this film because of a "diappointing experience with her first child." However, the viewer never really learns exactly what her experience was. Sure, she mentions that there were drugs involved, but did she not educate herself about different types of childbirth? Can she really put the blame on the medical field for her drug-induced birth if she didn't opt for a midwife or at least take a natural childbirth class? This part of the film is pretty fuzzy which is too bad, since Lake's experience sets the tone for the rest of the birth stories presented.
The film did show a number of beautiful and empowering home birth experiences and provided several experts to comment on the benefits of natural birth versus medical intervention (much of which I agree with, by the way), but I have to concur with my Bradley instructor, Juli, that what the film failed to do was show how women are having natural birth experiences in hospital settings. Only 1% of births currently take place at home, but that doesn't mean there aren't numerous "non-intervention" births taking place at medical facilities every day.
My last comment about the film is that the producer and director tried hard to show how lack of information/education is largely responsible for the rise in medical interventions during birth. In other words, doctors and hospitals really received a bad rep. This is why is made no sense to me that the producer (Abbie) became part of the film and included her own child's birth as one of the last scenes. Ironically, her baby was breech and had to be delivered by c-section, without which he could have suffered major medical disabilities. I'm sure she was glad that medical intervention was available.
Birth: it’s a miracle. A rite of passage. A natural part of life. But more than anything, birth is a business. Compelled to find answers after a disappointing birth experience with her first child, actress Ricki Lake recruits filmmaker Abby Epstein to examine and question the way American women have babies.
The film interlaces intimate birth stories with surprising historical, political and scientific insights and shocking statistics about the current maternity care system. When director Epstein discovers she is pregnant during the making of the film, the journey becomes even more personal.
Should most births be viewed as a natural life process, or should every delivery be treated as a potentially catastrophic medical emergency?
A couple of things about the film. First of all, Ricky Lake was compelled to produce this film because of a "diappointing experience with her first child." However, the viewer never really learns exactly what her experience was. Sure, she mentions that there were drugs involved, but did she not educate herself about different types of childbirth? Can she really put the blame on the medical field for her drug-induced birth if she didn't opt for a midwife or at least take a natural childbirth class? This part of the film is pretty fuzzy which is too bad, since Lake's experience sets the tone for the rest of the birth stories presented.
The film did show a number of beautiful and empowering home birth experiences and provided several experts to comment on the benefits of natural birth versus medical intervention (much of which I agree with, by the way), but I have to concur with my Bradley instructor, Juli, that what the film failed to do was show how women are having natural birth experiences in hospital settings. Only 1% of births currently take place at home, but that doesn't mean there aren't numerous "non-intervention" births taking place at medical facilities every day.
My last comment about the film is that the producer and director tried hard to show how lack of information/education is largely responsible for the rise in medical interventions during birth. In other words, doctors and hospitals really received a bad rep. This is why is made no sense to me that the producer (Abbie) became part of the film and included her own child's birth as one of the last scenes. Ironically, her baby was breech and had to be delivered by c-section, without which he could have suffered major medical disabilities. I'm sure she was glad that medical intervention was available.
1 comment:
I have not seen it yet but am really interested as the mom I babysit for was one of teh speakers at this as she delivered at home. It is on my netflix list- I want to hear more next week at our dinner- you and Joe still coming over for Mexican?
basically for me, there are a lot of issues with how we view birth her in the US & it is important to educate yoru self about the relaities, risks, etc BUT no one should make you feel bad or guilty (you get enough of that as a mom) about yoru choices at the time. ALl of us want a safe, healthy birth & baby but we are all different and birth and the process (physical and emotional) is vastly different for everyone, no judgments from me- i think anyone who has a baby is a rockstar. Period.
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