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mestills
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Business of Being Born
mestills
member
I just recently watched this documentary and found it very interesting. It was about midwives in the US and how their business is at an all time low and the implications with that.
Have any of you see it? What are your thoughts?
When you do eventually get KU what is going to be your birth plan?
This movie made me think more about going with a midwife personally.
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Re: Business of Being Born
I have no choice I would be high risk so Hospital with a Dr.
I have seen it. To be honest I wanted to go natural in a birthing center with a midwife. I know I've seen polls on here on meds and the percentage of women wanting an epidural was pretty high. Midwives can't administer that, unless they are in a hospital setting. As for why their business is at an all time low is beyond me. Many midwives now a days work in the hospitals and are in medical groups, so insurance does cover the cost. At least in IL.
Edit: Epidural has nothing to do with the subject.
My DH and I watched this a couple weeks ago. I found it very informative.
I plan on having a waterbirth with a midwife at the Birth center in town. It is super close to the hospital in case of emergencies. I have always wanted a water birth.
Edit: typed wrong word
I love that movie.
My hope is to have a natural birth with a midwife at home or in a birth center. Not sure what will actually end up happening because of insurance and costs though.
I loved the movie, but of course it was biased.
I would have loved to have a homebirth but we live too far from the hospital. As it was, I planned a med-free midwife birth in a hospital (no birthing center options in my area). I ended up in a non-emergency and most likely unnecessary cesarean section. The c/s rate in this country is about 30%. I am all for c/s when it is an emergency but when doctors just go to it, it can be dangerous. I was pretty much bullied into an induction by my midwife (there are 12 in her practice, you see them all, I got the luck of the draw and got the medwife, or "OB in Birkenstocks" as they call them) and a cascade of intervention led me to a surgical birth.
I have a healthy son who I love more than anything, but I believe my birth experience contributed heavily to my PPD and blah blah blah, I think it would have been better for both of us had things happened another way.
P.S. I am planning a VBAC next time. I will be taking the birth class Birthing from Within.
I mostly lurk around here but I watched this movie when I was pregnant and although it's informative, it's only one side of the story. I truly do not believe that most OB's have an agenda like the one that's portrayed in the movie.
Also, after having given birth in a hospital and knowing just how many things can go wrong along the way, I cannot imagine not giving birth in a hospital setting. I don't care if the hospital/NICU is two doors down from a birth center or whatever. I have heard so many stories from friends/family where literally every. single. solitary. second. that passed was a matter of life and death.
I was lucky to have a healthy and uneventful birth but just knowing the infinite number of things that can happen, I would never entertain the idea of giving birth outside of a hospital. If you do your research, and educate yourself you won't be powerless to make the right decisions for you and your family. At least when you are in a hospital, all options are available. This is not necessarily the case for home birth/birthing centers. Just my opinion, but I think the movie is incredibly one-sided.
A documentary is of course one sided.
Anyway, the bolded part is my point. Cascade of intervention is what leads to about 90% of those emergencies you speak of. Those almost exclusively happen in the hospital setting.
We just watched the movie last week too. It definitely helped change our thoughts on the direction we would go if/when I get pregnant. I ALWAYS thought I'd go OB/GYN with epidurals out the wazoo. I had no interest in a natural birth.
The day after we watched the movie, we went to visit a friend who had a home birth (in an apartment in Queens, NY, no less) with a midwife the week before. Our friend is also a midwife. After talking to her and her husband... and watching the movie... and starting the book our friend loaned me ("The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth"), I am definitely sold on going the midwife route. I'm not as scared of natural labor (still scared... but more confident that I could do it).
My husband is very pro-home birth now, but I think at this point I'd be more comfortable in a birthing center at a hospital. I told him we'd have to put in hard wood floors and warn our neighbors at the condo if we decided to birth at home ;-)
I knew I was planning to deliver with a midwife before this movie was released. DH and I watched it when I was about 30 weeks pregnant, and we really enjoyed it.
I delivered DS at a birth center with a midwife. I had no interventions during my labor - no pitocin, no pain meds, no episiotomy and I didn't even tear (and DS was 9 lbs). DH and I took Bradley classes when I was pregnant, and they helped us to have a natural childbirth.
We're planning to deliver at the birth center again next time too. It was a great experience.
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This.
And my feelings on the subject are based on tons of research other than just watching this movie.
I agree with you that some of the interventions are unnecessary, but I think what causes some of this is the fact that so many people go into the birth process uneducated about it and the possible thing that can happen along the way and the different ways to deal with them. Educating yourself is the most important thing no matter where you decide to give birth. This I believe, would help to decrease the unnecessary interventions you speak of.
So I was uneducated, and that is why I had interventions? I really hope that isn't what you are saying. I read every book out there, talked to many midwives, my own mother is an L&D nurse who is 100% for homebirth. SIL went in even more prepared than I was and still ended up with a cascade of intervention and a c-section.
Can you tell me why my 15 year old cousin who never read a single book on the process of pregnancy just went into labor and gave birth within 2 hours with no medications whatsoever? Must have been that preparation.
I have known for a while when I give birth I do not want an epidural. That scares me a lot, much much more than natural birth. Besides that I was never against births in hospitals for the reason that if something goes wrong, it can be fixed most likely. But after this movie it seems that it would be fairly unlikely to have a no medication natural birth. I am glad I watched this for that reason. For these reasons I would now want to go to a midwife and have an at home birth or at a birthing center.
I was also there when my sister gave birth to her first child and after 12 hours they started pushing her towards a CS until she gave in. With that her second child was automatically scheduled for a CS.
And personally I want to avoid that unless it is absolutely necessary.
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Did you go to the one in Chapel Hill? That is the only one right?
I haven't seen it, but I'd like to!
My original plan was to have a natural unmedicated birth with my midwife, but it didn't happen that way... I had to have an emergency c-section. I thought about a V-BAC, but DS was breech, so another c-section it was. After my youngest DD, my doctor said my ute is too thin to go through labor. As long as baby and I are healthy, how s/he gets here isn't such a big deal for me.
I loved having a midwife even if my plans didn't quite work out!