The whole unit of birth is something that opened my eyes to home birth and the glorification of it. Its usually something that I would say "oh no" to but after learning about the different aspects of it, I am aware now that it can actually be the best way to deliver a child. I feel that every woman planning to have a child in the future should watch this documentary in order to be educated on home births and to learn the unknown facts about hospital births.
Business of being born focused on educating women on home births and midwifes, and also to inform people about the unknown facts on hospital births. Many people believe that "normal" hospital births are most safe for the mother and child, while "natural" at home births seem weird and uncommon. I admit that I was very ignorant to this before, but after seeing different home birth stories documented in this movie, it helped me to understand home births better than I already did. At some points I was uncomfortable watching the woman being very intimate with her husband, such as touching and caressing eachother..but I realized that this stood as something very special because something like this would never be seen in a hospital during a normal birth. Home births stress the bonding between a mother and her new born child. Also the bonding and loving feeling of having loved ones around to make you feel comfortable and safe only adds to the special moment. During a hospital birth a mother pushes out the child and it is then put in the nursery. This doesn't give the mother a time to connect with her baby and to have the joyful feeling of bringing life into this world. When watching the mothers give birth at home, it was a intimate bonding feeling between the mother and the child. She automatically began to breast feed and it seemed as if there was an attachment already. When listening to our guest speaker today(ms plaza) she told us after she had her child she didn't feel a connection until about two days later. This is because she had decided not to receive any drugs during her pregnancy, therefore it was so painful at times that when her child finally was born ...all she wanted to do was sleep. She didn't really care what they did with her baby because she was so exhausted. To me this is something no mother should feel. She also felt as if the doctors had no clue on what they were suppose to do, so the whole experience for her was horrible.
The way bonding was portrayed in the documentary stood out to me and seemed very special. Something that is also shown to me in the movie is how many mothers aren't aware that hospita births can be very dangerous. When a women is in labor she rushes to the hospital and just automatically put all of her trust into the doctor. She depends on him to keep her baby safe, deliver her a healthy baby, and to make sure nothing goes wrong...but many of them don't know that the procedures doctors use aren't always the safest. Lithotomy position(woman on back with legs spread) is the position most common during hospital births, and personally I have believed up until now that it is the best way to deliver a child..but the truth is that its not. It shocked me to find out that Lithotomy position is made to benefit the doctor more than the patient, it seems bizzare that a person can worry about themselves more than a woman pushing out life...but that's the way it usually is.
During a home birth the woman is in the best position possible for giving birth, which is squatting position because it makes it easier for the baby to come out. For this to be a known fact for most people but still happening In the hospital, it seems as if its not really a big concern. It amuses me and saddens me at the sametime to see a women constantly thanking the doctor for "helping" her. Such as when a woman has pain during labor the doctors often persuade or request for them to receive an epidermal. They feed the patient all these things such as saying its only to help her, it won't hurt the baby and it will just make everything better. But the part that they really never mention is that the epidermal helps to ease the pain by slowing down the contractions, which slows down the pregnancy. This can began to slow down the entire labor process, which makes the doctor then want to give the mother pitocin. Pitocin is a drug that speeds up the contractions which speeds up the pregnancy and pain but once again an epidermal would be needed again because the contractions will get out of control. This becomes an on going process, drugging up the mother and drugging up the baby! Its not healthy at all! Than after this happens, the doctor decides that the women needs a c-section. While watching the movie the woman received a ceserean section because the baby wasn't in the right positing to have a vagina birth. A c section should never be done unless the childs life is at danger. But when this happens in the hospital the mother usually isn't aware that what is being done can harm her child. This points back to the amount of awareness expecting mothers have on natural and normal births. In the documentary rickie lake admitted that she didn't know much about home births but once she found out she knew it was something she wanted to experience. It shows that you have to be educated on a specific thing before you can immediately turn against it or be for it. This movie stood as a way for me to learn more about home births and the lives of midwives. Many midwives struggle because its not a well known or supported business, in the documentary a black owned home birth business had to close its doors because of the price of rent and low amount of business. I believe that if more woman were exposed to information on home births and midwives than it would be the number one way for women to give birth.
Even though this movie seems to go against the thought of having hospital births and doctors, it than switches gears and explores the idea of having the back up plan of going to the hospital to see a doctor just in case something goes wrong. This serves as a big contradiction to me. After saying how bad doctors are and how they don't do what's best for the patient at times...why would they choose to see a doctor? It comes down to the point that people in america put their health and safety into doctors hands, and doctors are people that make you feel safe in situations where you are injured or need medical attention. So personally I believe that no matter their negative thoughts on doctors, they have atleast visited a doctor once in their life and was unaware of what the doctor performed on them or unaware of the medication prescribed to them..but at the end they still listened to the doctor/ took their advice. So what does that show about them? It shows that they criticize doctors but at the sametime trust them and feel as if they are their only hope.
Overall the information that I received on home births and midwives from this movie really helped me to understand it on a deeper level and it only pushes me to want to learn more.
