The Business of Being Born Reactions

Arielle27

Mobile: The Business of Being Born Reactions

OK, I know this documentary is old news, but I finally just watched it... And I was wondering about all your thoughts on it?

I have to admit, after having two very successful, positive, unmedicated birthing experiences in hospitals with supportive staff members (one in this country and one abroad), I was frankly annoyed at the stance taken in the movie. While I absolutely agree with the issues about unnecessary interventions and ridiculously high rates of c-sections (and the obscene reasons for many of hem), as well as the issues about health insurance, I felt almost offended by comments made about OBGYNs (and hospital staff) as if they are all mindless, money-grubbing, selfish incompetents!

I'm very interested to hear the opinions of women on this board, FTMs, STMs or otherwise!

ejb23

We just watched it as well. While I agree with the "theme" it was much to pushy and my DH said was that it seemed like proproganda about the stuff you mentioned. I was disappointed because I thought it was help show us more natural labor techniques, etc.

ClaireOtoms

I totally agree.  I have always felt it was way too over-the-top and aggressive.  It also doesn't help the credibility of the birth movement that Ricki Lake has a daytime talk show that regularly features psychics and other "trashy" topics.

I do credit the documentary with sparking an interest in natural birth for me, but even immediately after watching it my first thought was that I needed to do more research on the subject, not that I had been absolutely convinced. 

aylafsu88

I agree with you.  It seemed like they were really anti-hopsital and anti-OB.  I know that there are OBs out there who push interventions and focus more on their schedule/what is convenient for them.  However, there are a lot of OBs who are natural birth friendly and many hospitals are trying to become geared towards providing the tools for woman to have a natural birth.  I do like that it focuses on natural birth and what needs to change. 

barista411

It is like any documentary. They have an agenda to get across and you have to take it at face value and pull out the information that is pertinent to your situation. The facts are good to know and the information is good to be aware of and can help you to be a better advocate for the type of birth you want. I believe More Business of Being Born presents a more balanced view.

Arielle27

barista411 said:

It is like any documentary. They have an agenda to get across and you have to take it at face value and pull out the information that is pertinent to your situation. The facts are good to know and the information is good to be aware of and can help you to be a better advocate for the type of birth you want. I believe More Business of Being Born presents a more balanced view.

Interesting. I've also earmarked this documentary on Netflix but after watching the jest one I wasn't planning on watching it again... Maybe I will though! Thanks!

tndalles

I did feel that there was a bias to the film but with that being said this movie was the main reason my husband jumped on the natural birth wagon with me. He wasn't interested in reading articles or books but this short film conveyed all the information I had read in a condensed fashion that was bearable for him. I also work for a large women's hospital and I do know that more c-sections happen a 4 PM and 10 PM that at any other time. This falls right in line with the theory that OBs take their schedule into account when deciding on interventions.

hfooter

I feel like the movie was just as expected. I think there are some really good points but felt along with other PPs that they were a little hard on OBs and such. However, I did like the ending and I am glad they kept that part in, showing the need for OBs and hospital births. I, myself will have my future baby (TTC starting in October) in the hospital but am leaning towards a CNM and potentially med free birth.

erb82

I agree that it was too hard on OBs and hospitals, but I thought it did a great job outlining a lot of reasons for having a natural birth. There wasn't any balance. If BofBB bothered you, don't watch Pregnant in America! It's even more biased and the guy is a total jerk. I wanted an epidural after watching it just to spite him.

Arielle27

Well I'm watching the follow up now (More Bof BB)... we'll see how that one is.

 

Again, I am definitely pro-natural birth, not at all against home births, had my first with a doula and midwife and actually my second was caught (unexpectedly) by a nurse because the doctor didn't believe that I was getting ready to push the baby out and didn't get there in time (I warned them!)... So all in all, I'm for a lot of things they advocate and also against a lot of the hospital procedures and doctors' decisions they criticize... I guess I just could not agree with the amount of slant and almost childish name-calling that happened in the film!

Luv2Run1st

I'm going to disagree a bit just bases on my personal experience with my OB that wasn't great which led me to have a home birth with a midwife the second time around. My experience with my OB was personality and could have been better with a different OB. Being told when to push based on dilation vs what you are feeling was also something I really disagreed with my hospital approach and believe that led to unnecessary tearing as compared to no tearing when I just did what my body told it to with my home birth..

Arielle27

Luv2Run1st said:

I'm going to disagree a bit just bases on my personal experience with my OB that wasn't great which led me to have a home birth with a midwife the second time around. My experience with my OB was personality and could have been better with a different OB. Being told when to push based on dilation vs what you are feeling was also something I really disagreed with my hospital approach and believe that led to unnecessary tearing as compared to no tearing when I just did what my body told it to with my home birth..

I definitely understand this! I kept saying I needed to push with my second and the nurse checked teice wihin that half hour or so and told me I was only 7cm... She really defeated my will at that point saying 'you've probably got a few more hours to go'.

Well I said no, the baby is coming out! She looked again and her head was coming out and I guess I was 10 cm (literally within a minute or two of being checked last) and I pushed her out quickly!

mh89

I really wished I had watched it prior to having my first daughter because I think I would have educated myself more on natural birth and requested not to have any interventions. Even though it's a heavy-handed documentary, it really did shine some light on things I hadn't known about during my first pregnancy.

My hospital this time around offers a room with a water birthing tub, so I'm excited to try to go natural this time, and I don't know if I'd be considering it if I hadn't seen The Business of Being Born first. 

robyn2201

barista411 said:

It is like any documentary. They have an agenda to get across and you have to take it at face value and pull out the information that is pertinent to your situation. The facts are good to know and the information is good to be aware of and can help you to be a better advocate for the type of birth you want. I believe More Business of Being Born presents a more balanced view.

I agree.

This documentary is what made me decide to have a natural birth. I had two natural births in 2 different hospitals.  

My OB with DD1 was not a natural birth minded OB. She was not supportive of my wishes. Told me I wouldn't want to be moving around at all once in labor (I stood the entire time). Pulled the dead baby card when I asked for IFM. Lied and said it was hospital policy for CFM. I could go on.

Then in my first hospital, I had a nurse yelling at me to be quiet while pushing. She made comments to my doula about teaching her students to not push correctly.

There are good OB's out there. Unfortunately there are a lot of OB's, nurses and even midwifes who are not. From conversations that I have had with my doula, natural birth minded providers are few and far between. Thankfully, I found a new OB for DD2's birth. She is wonderful and I had a much better experience.

Yogakitten

barista411 said:

It is like any documentary. They have an agenda to get across and you have to take it at face value and pull out the information that is pertinent to your situation. The facts are good to know and the information is good to be aware of and can help you to be a better advocate for the type of birth you want. I believe More Business of Being Born presents a more balanced view.

Sorry, but I always hate this argument because all documentaries aren't like this. Bad documentaries are like this. Good ones shed light on subjects that are underappreciated or provide new angles to view things -- but they aren't all heavy-handed and agenda-based. Personally, I think Ricki Lake is a terrible spokesperson for natural birth. I remember seeing an interview where she said that she considered becoming a midwife or doula after her birth, but then she found out how long it would take and made this documentary instead. The only thing that made me think less of this documentary was actually watching it.

JCWhitey

I think there are a few things about this documentary that people forget these days.  1) It was made between 2005-2008.  Things back then were a lot different than they are now.  There weren't any Baby-Friendly hospitals in the NYC area and natural birth wasn't as "in" as it is now.  People were having them, of course, but things like doulas and home births weren't nearly as popular.  They still really aren't, but I think they are growing a lot in popularity.

So yes, this documentary is VERY biased, but it was made to spread a message and I think it's been very effective over the years.  I had no clue home birth was something anyone did until I saw the documentary, and I didn't realize how many interventions were just casually given at many hospitals.  Home birth wasn't an option for us due to insurance issues, but I wanted to be very selective with my hospital choices.  After visiting three and interviewing the nurses it was clear that one was extremely natural birth friendly and the other two weren't at all.  I was even told at one that a birth plan wasn't really encouraged since hospital regulations make them impossible to follow. 

I really do think that without BoBB I would have just assumed I'd get an epidural and not prepare for a natural birth.  Which means I would have been SOOL for my labor because there was no time to get an epi and I was beyond happy I had a wealth of techniques in my pocket for getting through labor without any pain meds.  I experienced little to no pain because I knew how to manage it so well.

Yogakitten said:

barista411 said:

It is like any documentary. They have an agenda to get across and you have to take it at face value and pull out the information that is pertinent to your situation. The facts are good to know and the information is good to be aware of and can help you to be a better advocate for the type of birth you want. I believe More Business of Being Born presents a more balanced view.

Sorry, but I always hate this argument because all documentaries aren't like this. Bad documentaries are like this. Good ones shed light on subjects that are underappreciated or provide new angles to view things -- but they aren't all heavy-handed and agenda-based. Personally, I think Ricki Lake is a terrible spokesperson for natural birth. I remember seeing an interview where she said that she considered becoming a midwife or doula after her birth, but then she found out how long it would take and made this documentary instead. The only thing that made me think less of this documentary was actually watching it.

Please name one.  I watch a lot of documentaries and every one takes a side and has an agenda. Some are more obvious than others, but they all twist some facts to back an agenda in some way.  A good documentary should show both sides, of course, but all of the many documentaries I've seen have an agenda that they try to get across in the end.

Yogakitten

Well, many documentaries really are about telling an untold story or giving us glimpses into worlds we rarely see. Where's the "fact-twisting" in Planet Earth? And others like Searching for Sugarman may have some omissions, but I don't think there is a huge controversy behind it. Spellbound -- what's the agenda there, that kids in spelling bees are nerds? What about March of the Penguins? But let's focus on ones that have an agenda. How about Ken Burns' The Civil War? Great piece. Was there some controversy among historians? Absolutely. But few would say that he purposefully skewed facts to fit his agenda -- it was clearly well-researched and the disagreements were generally matters of interpretation. Documentaries used to be about presenting a well-researched body of work. It's fine to have a point of view or a "side" (I mean, how do you do a doc on the Holocaust without picking a side?), but you can choose to support your position with facts or you can rely on emotion and twisted facts. It seems like the latter is what's popular today, with rise of guys like Michael Moore, basically selling material as factual when it's clearly biased -- more like "docu-ganda" if you will. But maybe it's not a surprise seeing as journalism is generally headed the same way. Look, I'm a believer in natural birth. I don't think that birth is a medical event/emergency and I think that we are way too trigger happy when it comes to interventions. These points could have been made without demonizing doctors/hospitals or making it seem like one must choose between a peaceful home birth and a sterile hospital birth. I think a topic as serious as childbirth in the US deserved much better than this.

Yogakitten

By the way, two of my friends actively direct documentaries, so debates on this come up fairly often among my friends.

laurakaz13

Completely one-sided propaganda.  I had a wonderful hospital birth with wonderful doctors.  I work in healthcare and this video frustrates me to no end. 

Arielle27

@yogakitten - Well said!

gracete

I'm a FTM and I actually loved the documentary (due Jan 2014).

It was the first piece of information that made me SURE that I wanted a natural birth without any interventions.

I have done a lot of research on my own and think the documentary was a great start for me.

 

huntjul

I think it was worth watching and may be an eye-opener for those who are not on the natural birth bandwagon, but it really should just be a jumping off point for someone to do their own research on the topics. It does paint all OBs with the same brush--intervention happy, which is true for some but not all.

DebateThis

I hated it for the same reasons you did, OP. Women are smart and can make informed decisions without politicizing an important issue or using scare tactics. And, contrary to RL's beliefs, many women really do need to be in the hospital to deliver - esp in a country where there are so few midwives. I hope that changes eventually and we see a total 180 in how maternity care is handled, but for now, terrifying pregnant women that hospitals are all evil slice n'dice factories does no one any good.