The Business of Being Born – a Review

The Business of Being Born, a movie by Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein, became available on DVD last week, giving most women in this country an opportunity to see it and evaluate for themselves the issues surrounding how we “do” childbirth in this country. Many of the reviews I have read about this film have criticized it for being biased towards natural childbirth and home birth. They’re probably right.

And that’s okay.

The hospital intervention, politically correct look at birth is readily available every day via shows such as A Baby Story, Deliver Me, Maternity Ward, and in books such as the What To Expect franchise and The Girlfriend’s Guide to Pregnancy.

The Business of Being Born didn’t need to be balanced. IT IS THE BALANCE to every other medium in the US that portrays birth as a medical event in need of managing. And it does it with information, gentleness and a dollop of humor. (I loved the bits of Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life scattered throughout the film, especially the bit about “and bring in the machine that goes ‘PING!” What a great touch!)

The cast of natural birth authorities was quite impressive and very familiar to me from the days I was reading all things “birth.” Ina Mae Gaskin, Dr. Marsden Wagner, and Dr. Michael Odent were the heaviest influences in my own attitudes and education regarding birth and I was happy to see them featured prominently throughout the film.

For the logical thinker, I think this film should send up a lot of flags about why we do certain things the way we do in the modern hospital birth. Dr. Marsden Wagner brought up a number of things that were “standard” of care in modern obstetrics that ended up having disastrous effects. (Thalidamide anyone? Or how about the ruptured uteri from Cytotec – a drug for treating ulcers that was never designed for a laboring mom). Which begs the question, where are all the carefully controlled studies? When they tell moms they have to have an IV, or they have to have pitocin, where are the studies to back all of that up.

Another question raised during the film that has bothered me ever since Calvin’s birth, “what is the effect of all of these interventions on the baby?” With ADHA and autism on the rise, shouldn’t we at least look at how these babies are coming into the world and the effect this all has on their psychological, mental and emotional development?

The film points out that homebirth midwives do show up with oxygen, and other emergency medical supplies should they be needed. They are skilled at what they do. (That may be the case in New York City, the focus of the film, but in Ohio a homebirth midwife was jailed for using pitocin appropriately and transferring her mom to the hospital. She spent weeks in jail for contempt of court because she refused to give up the name of the doctor who supplied her with pitocin. Clearly when midwives CAN’T have basic medical supplies, and doctors are threatened for backing midwives, women in Ohio can’t receive the best care possible for fear of legal repercussions. It makes no sense.)

The film had some beautiful homebirth moments. I think the general American population may be surprised at how normal and beautiful a natural birth can be compared to how it is portrayed on television. There is also a very graphic C-section (which made me think of the blogger who wrote “Just because it is faster, easier, cleaner and more attractive doesn’t necessarily mean it’s worse.” I wonder if she had actually even SEEN a C-section surgery. Faster, easier and cleaner for whom?)

I think this is a very important movie. (ACOG must think so too since they issued an indirect statement about it!) It asks important questions and debunks some standard myths. If I had seen it in 1988, my entire birth resume might have looked a lot different. Hopefully young women and husbands who view these films will hold their caregivers accountable for the interventions they try to hoist on them as the standard of care. Maybe this is crack in the door that will give birth back women and give them some real choices about how they wish to be treated during one of the most vulnerable and empowering times of their lives.

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