honeydunce

I know this movie has been out for a while, but I just watched it for the first time, and I want to recommend it: The Business
of Being Born. Male or female, expectant or not, you need to see this. Some things I took away from this film:

- The hospital is a business. This seems like such an obvious thing, right? Anyone that’s been in the emergency room can
attest to experiencing the business aspect. Perhaps we don’t expect such an approach with something like birth.

-In the 1900’s, nearly 98% of births took place at home. By the ’50’s, that number was down to less than 1% and STILL is.
This blew my mind.

-The domino effect of pitocin/epidural/inducing/interference. How all of it so easily slips from the mother’s hands and into
the doctor’s. It’s downright scary.

- in 2005, 1 out of every 3 births result in c-section. Again, scary. Also scary: the doctors in the documentary who admit to
exploiting the patient’s interest in c-section(cuts down on length of labor, cuts down on doctor’s work). Also the concept of
“too posh to push.” A c-section is major surgery–not a route of convenience.

- The difference in the footage–the footage of hospital delivery vs. the at-home deliveries in this film–is incredible. The
hospital births, frankly, scare the shit out of me. Of course, the at-home birth footage is scary as well, but also pretty damn
empowering. At home, the women are not on their backs with their legs in stirrups. They are on exercise balls, in the water,
squatting down, standing…however they need to be. It’s amazing.

Anyway, see it. It’s incredible.