My Daily Domestic Diigolet 03/01/2008

In no way was I prepared for my reaction. Shortly into the 1 hour and 24 minute documentary, I was in tears, sobbing. It was like a floodgate had been opened, and every vented up emotion that I had about my own experiences giving birth, was released.

I was in awe of the beautiful, natural, and peaceful births shown at home, with skilled and highly trained midwives. During labor, the mothers were roaming around their homes, freely and unobstructed. There was a woman who had a water birth, with her young son watching, totally calm and relaxed. There were images of newly born home birthed babies lying peacefully and contentedly on their mother’s chests just seconds after being born, gazing lovingly up in their mother’s eyes. The mother’s, though tired from just giving birth were alert, happy, and peaceful.

One scene showed an exhausted mother, being prepped and wheeled off on a gurney to the operating room for a C-section. It was not hurried, so I don’t believe it was an emergency C-section, rather more likely than not, she was not able to birth her baby in the allotted time that so many hospitals have. She had her eyes closed, totally detached from the experience, and it struck me like she was a lamb going off to the proverbial slaughter.

It was so striking seeing that, compared to the homebirths. The women at home were in control and had complete and entire power over the birth of their babies. They were the ones who decided when it was time to birth their baby, and they had total confidence in their bodies. They didn’t need IV’s, drugs dripping in their systems, weakening the labor process, constant monitoring, doctors and nurses telling them when to push, and micromanaging their labors, and they didn’t need C-sections.

TBOBB gets right to the root of this terrible epidemic- women are basically forced to give away their birthing power and choices to the doctors and hospitals, without really realizing what is going to be “done” to them, because it is not explained for the most part to them ahead of time. As I watched that poor, drained, and drugged, mother being wheeled off to her C-section, I saw myself in her- I saw her power gone, totally helpless and at the “mercy” of the surgeon who was about to operate on her, because her body “failed,” and she could not give birth.

Never mind that babies used to be born breech all the time, even when they had less technology. Joe’s oldest sister was born breech in the 60’s, and guess what? She was born healthy and Joe’s mother was just fine too. Never mind that one of my good friends gave birth at home to a surprise breech footling 9.5-pound baby boy in 2006. Guess what? Her son couldn’t be any healthier today, and she was fine too

I was very impressed and surprised that there were so many doctors, and OB/GYN’s in the film saying that the current system wasn’t working either. One of the doctors at Mt. Sinai in the film said something to the effect that if something isn’t done, and if someone doesn’t step in, the caesarean rate will soon be at 100%.

One of Ina May’s quotes that she had in the movie, which I loved, was right before she gave the C-section number in her practice, was an answer to the argument that women in America are different from other women in the world, hence the high C-section rate. Right after she stated that they didn’t see a C-section until birth number 187, and then they didn’t see it again until a birth in the 300’s (I can’t remember the exact number she gave). She said, (and I went back and reviewed several times what she said, and wrote it down), “That tells me the pelvis of the American woman is just fine-thank you very much.”

He also drew a great analogy. He mentioned that when he speaks to groups of OB/GYN’s and tell them about home birth, he said he always gets groans and heads shaking. Then he asks the doctor’s who have actually witnessed a home birth to raise their hands. He said he has never gotten a doctor yet, who has actually observed a home birth. He said they are like a geographer who is trying to describe a country that they have never been to, but are too afraid to visit. I couldn’t agree more.

I will leave you with a quote, which was extremely powerful for me, from the wonderful OB/GYN researcher in the film. He said so elegantly, when talking about what we are doing is clearly not working, and is not what is best for mothers and their babies was this,” When you talk with certain women who still have a sort of intuitive knowledge of the importance of what is happening when the baby is born, they cannot accept that caesarean section is the future. They cannot accept that.”

And, after all, isn’t that the purpose of a sentence? To get people to read what comes next?

A quick and dirty way is to look for all of the thats. You can jettison most of them.
Then take a look at the fluff. Strike any copy if it:

• Doesn’t add anything substantial.
• Won’t change the work’s meaning or tone.

If you’d skip over something, you better believe someone else will,

As as result, everyone learned to write dreadful passive prose. I don’t know about you, but I’ve seldom met a passive sentence I liked.
Chances are good you’ve got a Mrs. Anderson in your past, too. Exorcise that demon’s teaching immediately.

Subjects — not to mention your readers — yearn for action. Don’t disappoint them.

Adverbs suck the life out of magnificent nouns and adjectives. In fact, there’s nothing an adverb can do that the right noun or adjective can’t do better by themselves.

Bob admitted he liked women with slightly curvy figures.

Don’t softpedal this, Bob. Tell us you like voluptuous women. Tell us you like women with va-va-voom. “Slightly curvy” just doesn’t cut it.

My wife makes fun of me when she hears me reading my fiction. She claims it’s because I like to fawn over the sound of my own words.
She’s only half right. 😛

I hesitated giving this one up. It comes deep from within the fiction writer’s trunk full of magic.