The Business of Being Born: Let's Talk!

I know I'm still pondering it - you? Glad it's out there, for sure, but feeling like angles were missed.  Loved the historical stuff.  So important (and more than a little terrifying) to know how we landed where we are with all this, and fascinating/horrific to see what women endured a century ago.  Also interesting to note the comparisons with other developed nations.  It is becoming clearer to me every day that the U.S. really does score dead last in all family-related public policies. It starts with birth and m/paternity leave and never really gets better!  Aack.

For all who see this documentary in the coming weeks, we hope that you'll share your impressions here, start or continue the dialog (and action!!) that this movie was meant to stir up.  So whether you just want to discuss the film and the many issues it raises, or you're ready to DO something, go ahead, weigh in!  Because with the many, many births experienced by urbanMamas, we have a wealth of knowledge and a wide variety of experience and opinions to bring to this conversation. 

At the first viewing alone there were an amazing array of birth experiences in the room - from multiple home births to triple C-sections and a V-BAC.  I left the post-screening conversation enlightened and inspired, and wanting to hear more from the urbanMama community.  For starters....

Movie Impressions:

• Did you like it?  Glad you saw it? 
• Think it painted an accurate picture of birth in this country?
• What did you think of Epstein's C-section at the end?
• Where were the doulas? 
• Did it make you regret anything about your own birth(s)?

Let's DO Something, mamas!

• There's a great "Ask a Midwife" section on the movie web site that you can pass along to anyone you think could use the info.  It covers V-BAC safety, how to become a midwife, and age-related issues, to name a few.
• Check out The Birth Survey - an amazing project by the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS).  Their goal is to bring transparency and accessible information to maternity care.  A pilot was rolled out last summer in NYC and it's going national in summer 2008. Yes, that means here - yahoo!  Wanna help them?  E-mail them - they need help in a variety of ways, collecting local stats, publicizing the project, etc...

Rather than reinvent the wheel here, seems like connecting with these folks to create and broadcast an effective tool in Portland is a great place to start.  Transparency for parents-to-be seems a good place to start making change.  Of course a call or letter to your health care provider/insurer, the AMA, or your legislators never hurts!  Since I always take the least time-consuming route (those two kids under five, remember?), we can publicize the data locally once this project pumps it out (no pun intended!).

Comments

[Sarah]

I have spent the last 24+ hours dreaming up different ways to become active in the area of "informed consent" regarding birth practices. Thank you for the link to a movement currently underway. I would love to talk to you more about it.

As for the movie, I think I'm still letting it all sink in. As one mom put it yesterday, it was emotionally exhausting!

But to answer your posted questions, I am glad I saw it and did like it. I think it raises serious questions and I am sincerely hoping the topic of birth will come into the mainstream consciousness. It seems ridiculous that something that affects all of us (no other way to come into the world!) is almost an unknown aspect of life.

An accurate picture of birth... I have to honestly say that in the last 3 years, I have noticed the prevalence of cesarean births creeping into my world through friends and family members. It has shocked me and I have found myself worrying about the most recent births in my circle until I hear from the families how things went. 5 years ago I wouldnt have thought this way. I am so grateful to doctors and hospitals for their existence and their knowledge in desperate situations (what did that one dr. call it - the 2% terror factor?) but am sickened by the increased medicalization of such a normal life occurence. I think it's important to note that the cycle of teaching and learning goes both ways here - and the consumer (formally known as the patient) seems to be demanding better outcomes without questions (like process) or pause. This is merely an impression but the movie does seem to support this idea.

Ah, Abby's c-section. I wondered why her midwife didnt try interventions herself like positions (did she?) or to manually turn the baby. But then we were told the baby was not only breech but also had the cord wrapped pretty tightly around his neck. I think it is in these situations that people make the best decision they can. I dont think anybody can argue with that kind of logic. But I didnt see the process of how they got there - it seemed (atleast in my memory) to look like a situation of jumping to it and actually showed that c-sections are a good choice (which ofcourse they are in emergencies.) tricky. I need to see it again!

Where WERE the doulas???! The use of a doula in the hospital has been really effective in my friends' births. This would have been compelling - seeing more positive outcomes in the hospital setting instead of pitting hospital births against home births so strongly.

I had two home births and loved each. They were strong, wild and ultimately, amazing. I loved seeing the women in the film hold onto their own babies as they were birthing them (something I didnt do)...almost makes me want to do it again. That looks fabulous! Hmmm....

Thank you so very much for being such a huge resource and for jumping on this movie and bringing it to us (with MotherTree and the Nursing Mothers Council).

[Susan NWMidwives.com]

I also want to direct you to the Mothers Naturally website for information more relevant to the primary homebirth attendants, Certified Professional Midwives, who attend about 95% of out of hospital births in Oregon. The model of care is different than CNMs and this website represents that model as well as has a FAQ page.

http://mothersnaturally.org/

Another website that may be helpful is the Oregon Midwifery Council which has a directory of practicing midwives http://oregonmidwiferycouncil.org

[Lisa]

Thank you, Susan, for the added resources! Coincidentally, I just added the OMC link to our "Healthy Families" sidebar list to be a resource. Also, I offered up uM Activistas to help sprerad the word when The Birth Survey rolls out this summer. They were very receptive. I wonder what you know of that project? Opinions?

[LTF]

Three showing down and three to go and you've raised $312 for the Nursing Mothers Council. What a great community effort! Once all the showings are over we'll post a final amount. Yippee!

[Amber]

I don't know that I can say that I enjoyed a movie that made me feel so sick to my stomach about my own first birth, but I think, for what it is, it was good. I am glad that I watched it, glad that I was able to see "normal" births. I am not sure that it painted an accurate picture of birth in America - of course the BoBB is more than a little biased.However, I do feel that it certainly opened some eyes to the way birth has become a disease, something that needs to be fixed.

I was surprised but elated that Epstein had a c-section. I think it is important that the BoBB gets the message across that OF COURSE there are valid reasons for having c-sections. I was also surprised that there were no doulas. I am currently in doula training and was dismayed to see that only one woman utilized such an awesome resource!

I already had regrets about my first birth, but the talk of the pitocin-epidural cycle really sealed the deal. I am currently pregnant and will be VBACing in November. It is not my ideal birth, as there will still be some intervention, but I am hoping in additional years, when we have more children, and I can prove that I can have a normal birth, that less and less intervention will be needed.

[Oregon_Anon]

I would just like to highlight one thing that no one seems to talk about. I am currently pregnant with a baby that is, let's just say chromosomally not normal. I have thus far been unable to find a doctor in the Portland area that is willing to do a c-section (in case the baby becomes distressed during birth) because the baby is not a 'normal' baby. Doctors put their own value judgement on life and whether it's worth living for as little as an hour. Can't they understand that a life is precious to their parents no matter how short?

[Oregon_Anon]

I would just like to highlight one thing that no one seems to talk about. I am currently pregnant with a baby that is, let's just say chromosomally not normal. I have thus far been unable to find a doctor in the Portland area that is willing to do a c-section (in case the baby becomes distressed during birth) because the baby is not a 'normal' baby. Doctors put their own value judgement on life and whether it's worth living for as little as an hour. Can't they understand that a life is precious to their parents no matter how short?