Sex-Lift

We’ve just watched the new Ricki Lake-produced documentary, The Business of Being Born. Wow. This is a must-see for women, especially those who are ever considering having a child. You may ask, why is Sex-Lift blogging about a movie about having babies? To that we answer, 1) how do you think women get pregnant in the first place, and 2) childbirth is wholly related to female reproductive health.

The film delves into the myriad problems women may be faced with when giving birth in a hospital. Going into the film, we had assumed that home births are riskier than hospital births. Coming out, our opinion had changed. We hadn’t previously considered the business standpoint of hospitals - meaning that when it comes down to it, they are around to make money and don’t want women lying around in labor for longer than necessary. If a birth isn’t moving along as quickly as the hospital would like (aka, have your baby and get the hell out!), the woman may be given drugs to induce contractions, which are more painful due to the drugs and can put stress on the baby, leading to the potential need for a C-section. C-section rates are currently higher than ever…and now it seems to make sense why.

The film points out that mother and infant mortality rates are lower in a number of other countries, and that in those countries, midwives are present at a substantially higher percentage of births than in the United States. A good deal of the film is spent following New York midwife Cara Muhlhahn as she assists in a number of home births. One of the most interesting things we learned from seeing home births was this: trying to push a baby out while lying down, which is how hospital births are conducted, is unnatural. It is actually much more natural to push the baby out while squatting. It was fascinating to watch women give birth in a way that seems so odd, yet at the same time knowing that this is how women gave birth for centuries before modern medicine began to take over.

We came away from this movie with our eyes opened to a totally “different” way of childbirthing. We imagine that most women don’t even consider home birth as an option; that they will have their babies in a hospital because that is what people do. Home birth is about educating yourself, and about empowering yourself to make your own decisions and do it YOUR way, not the hospital’s way.

Click here to watch the film’s trailer. Then put the DVD at the top of your Netflix rental queue! To begin educating yourself about childbirth, visit these resources recommended at the film’s website:

Childbirth Connection

Choices in Childbirth

Birthing From Within