Hey Dads,

I watched a documentary with my wife last night called "The Business of being Born"



Let me tell you that this film completely opened my eyes!! There is SO much wrong with the way that we deliver babies in this country. The hospital is a business that has a bottom line... that is why we have drugs, that is why we have c-sections... we treat woman like they are SICK!! They aren't sick, they are giving birth. I can't list all the facts from the documentary here, but trust me when I say there is enough to make you mad while you watch it.

I highly suggest that anyone who is expecting to watch this film, so you at least have MORE information to make better decisions for yourself, especially to protect yourself and your baby!

Woman have been giving birth longer than doctors have existed. Their bodies know what they are doing, so why pump them full of drugs that ultimately lead to c-section (1 in 3 pregnancies now... isn't that a clue that there is something wrong with the system) then carry the baby off away from mother were the baby isn't getting hormones released from bonding?!

If anyone has already seen this I would Love to hear some feedback.

Thanks for posting that. I have not seen the film but will do so, it looks very good and brings up interesting issues that we have explored here in the past. Go R. Lake!

My wife went to a viewing recently sponsored by the local ICAN group that she belongs to.

It is a definite eye-opener.

I would also strongly recommend Tina Cassidy's book "Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born."

It's a little less polemical, equally eye-opening, personal and funny. I really love this book.

I really didn't like the Ricky Lake movie. She's in the same class as Jenny McCarthy to me. I'd rather have a "documentary" be research based when it presents something as a whole picture of something medical. The truth is that people have babies in hospitals by choice or due to emergency all the time. There are problems and the system isn't always perfect, but I didn't find the portrayal very accurate.

And the other thing is that showing a pregnant woman something that will make her worry more about things out of her control is not good. There's enough going on.

We've found that when you set up all these expectations for how you want things to go, the baby is never cooperative. More women we know who swore against intervention have needed C-Sections than those who had flexible plans. My advice is to choose your preferred route to a healthy delivery and plan for every contingency. That way, if you end up in the hospital preparing for something that's not in your dream delivery, you know what questions you need to answer and have probably already discussed it with your doctor and other professionals.

Thinking that hospitals are evil or inhumane is worn out. Most hospital maternity areas here are completely separate from the regular hospital areas and have people available for nearly any techniques you want to use. If that's how it is here in Middle-Age Fort Wayne, it has to be at least as progressive in the modern world.

just an fyi to anyone that's interested, this documentary can be streamed on netflix. it's been sitting in my instant queue for a while along with 50 other things that i may not ever have time to watch.

i made time to watch this since we're in progress on our second and i was blissfully ignorant with the first. i'll say up front that since my wife is a physician, i wasn't without preconceptions about how i expected to feel about this topic.

i was actually somewhat impressed with the documentary but a little balance would have gone a long way. there's definitely an agenda being pursued, and you are almost made to feel like the riskiest thing you can do is have a child in a hospital. rikki lake disparages women who are only concerned with the outcome and not the tranformative experience of natural labor, and then there are weird elements like when, for some reason, they show pictures of thalidomide babies even though the drug was never even approved for use in the US.

i think this documentary is a worthwhile use of 90 minutes, there is lots of good information and stories are wonderful. just be aware that it totally glosses over the fact that childbirth can be risky and is hardly a flawless process. (the accepted number that i found from poking around on the internet - which is always an infallibly accurate method of research - at least 1 in 100 women used to die in childbirth. apparently, it was considered risky enough that women used to make their wills as the delivery date approached.)

that video twists some information. the fact the US death rate is twice as high in as in other developed nations isn't as big an issue as they make it out to be, and I'll explain this below.

In the early 1800-1900s, in the Us, the maternal death rate was around 1 in a 100 births (10%). and child birthing was the leading cause adult female death, ahead of polio or even old age.

-currently rates in the us are 11-17 per 100 000 births (0.00011-0.00017%)

-Canada which has one of the lowest maternal death rates in world is at 5-7 per 100 000 (0.00005-0.00007%)

-the average for devolved nations is 40 deaths per 100 000,

-average in developing nations is 440 per deaths 100 000

- the worst nations can exceed 2000 deaths per 100 000

So, the US really isn't doing that bad a job, but if they want to beat world leader ireland (under 1 per 100 000) Improvements need to be made

All This is why I'm now really against home birthing. Modern medicine is why maternal deaths rates and infant mortality rates are so low in developed nations. I see staying in a hospital, even a mismanaged one, as a far smarter thing to do than having to dial 911, and then wait for an ambulance to show up if something goes wrong.


btw...I'm a bit of a numbers guy, I spent a couple hours looking this stuff up. I figure I must of been an accountant or statistician in a past life or something.

@outsidemike

These figures really help put things in perspective. Thanks for COMPLETELY geeking out on this one.

I wonder if the March of Dimes crunched the numbers in this way before giving the USA a grade of D in premature births.

I would just say, Shop around. We did, and are happy about it. When we tell people that we went to a hospital 20 minutes away instead of having our baby at the hospital that is literally a half a mile from our house, they look at us as if we have 2 heads (each). But there is a marked difference between the various hospitals in our area. Our original plan was to go to a local birthing center, but my wife and the midwife really just didn't mesh, so we checked out the hospital that she sends patients to in case of emergency. It's truly an amazing place. We essentially had the same experience I imagine we would have had at the birthing center, in a hospital, one with a Level II nursery btw. The doctor on call was more like a midwife than the midwives that my wife was seeing. All in all we were super impressed, especially considering our own philosophical skepticisms about the medical industry generally. (FYI: I actually had to watch this movie for a seminar on Marx, if that tells you anything)

That being said, unfortunately, it is not always the case that people are fortunate to be able to shop around in order to get the experience they are looking to create. We are lucky enough to have 6 major hospitals and a birthing center within 45 minutes drive. And not all hospitals are equal. So if you can, take a look around, take tours, and ask questions. It's a fundamentally life changing experience. Make it your own.

I saw the movie in Netflix. I don't think the system is quite bad as they make it out to be. Given a choice most women and men will try to avoid pain if they could. I'm sure home birthing is a good option but from all the birthing shows/videos I've seen on TV and else where, the women especially first time at some point say I cant take this I need to go to a hospital. Its just human nature to avoid pain if you think you can.

Second time moms are more able to handle home births. We are wishing to have a normal birth in a couple of weeks with no interventions. But if we need some we are glad to have our Doctor(who just had a baby herself) be there for us.

In the movie the its ironic that the film maker herself ends up in the hospital because her baby is breached and is preemie with cord around the neck(3lbs) the baby goes on to recover and be healthy because of the intervention(C-section)

They do make some very good points in this movie you have to take the good and use that information.

There is another angle to this that has been show in other studies that people tend to really appreciate people who assist them when they are in pain or stress. Which is why they says Dentist have a retention rate of 90% even though they only agree with each other about 50% of the time what the problem is. Even in your own life if you going through a stressful time and someone brings u cup of coffee or something trivial you will tend to appreciate it more when the process ends and the outcome is good.

Sorry for the long post