All Things Supercinski

I had been itching to see Ricki Lake’s documentary, The Business of Being Born, ever since I heard about it months ago, and I finally had a chance to watch it last week. The Women’s Studies department at TAMU was holding a screening, and thankfully, my midwife was telling everyone she knew to come. I highly recommend the film to anyone who is pregnant or thinking about having children anytime soon.

The documentary makes an excellent case for natural childbirth, and a very strong case for giving birth outside of the hospital. With the United States spending more money delivering babies than any other country, but with an infant mortality rate the second worst in the developed world (and a maternal mortality rate that is one of the worst in the developed world), something needs to change. The documentary sites several reasons–the absence of midwives from hospitals, the rising cesarean rate, artificial time limits put on the natural process of birth, insurance/money and more. The film offers a lot of statistics, history, and political explanations for current birth practices that leave little confidence in the current system (especially the historical parts).

Several home births are documented in the film, including Ricki Lake’s own birth. There is quite a bit of nudity, but less than the average birthing video, and much less than the films I show in my classes! These births show the pain, excitement and freedom of birth without hospital restrictions and policies. The film takes an unexpected turn with director Abby Epstein’s pregnancy and birth offering balance as to the role of hospitals and doctors when serious complications arise.

While unmedicated childbirth is a truly miraculous event, and one that I highly recommend experiencing, I tend to disagree with the film’s underlying message that natural birth is the culmination of your existence as a woman. I do believe that, in the majority of cases, God made our bodies fully capable of giving birth without modern technology assisting, though it definitely has a place, as the film shows through Epstein’s birth. Our blind trust and dependence upon surgeons to “treat” the normal has led us to forsake education, preparation, and determination in the natural process. I fully recommend The Business of Being Born. You will be challenged to (re)consider your views on birth. The film is currently available through private screenings and Netflix.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Books, Radio, Film, Pregnancy/Birth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.