The Business of Being Born

This documentary portrays well the reality in which doctors induce hospital deliveries for practicality and financial reasons. Very well directed and with a fascinating script, I had the honor of participating in the documentary with my wife, from images given from the birth of my first daughter.

This film is full of life: humor, elation, disappointment, and the full range of emotions that the birthing experience provides. It is inspirational to women and partners and allows them to view different births including the preparation. These hip, smart and endearing city women and partners allow the viewers to share an important time of their life. Giving women more choice in their ideal birthing experience spares them from being surprised by the reality of hospital births. The lack of support in the United States for birthing families is surprising. This film is supportive, courageous and dares to challenge ignorance in the delivery room.

The Business of Being Born is about birth procedure in the United States today, specifically regarding home births in contrast to hospital births. According to the documentary, these days 99% of births in the United States happen in hospitals. Most women don't even know about their options to have home births or even what a midwife is. Interviews with several birth specialists concluded that this is in fact a travesty, that the rushed, drug-infused deliveries that doctors are pushing on women these days is actually contributing to the United States having one of the highest infant and women mortality rates in any developed country in the world. Host, Ricki Lake and just about every person interviewed in the documentary really pushed women to consider natural home births with midwives. Obviously, this documentary was very biased towards one point of view. Regardless, it really got me thinking about birth and about the questions I should ask if and when I have a baby.

The documentary showed four or five home births on camera. Sure, they were gross but what was nice about them was that they didn't look so frightening. Any time you see a birth scene in a movie, the woman is typically screaming her head off and many times complications arise and interventions are made. The home births made having a baby look like this super happy, empowering thing (and painful of course but I guess that goes without saying). The women were able to have their babies in their own homes on their own terms without having anyone make suggestions that they take drugs or induce.

Of course there are times when those things are needed. I'm not trying to downplay the value of hospitals when it comes to having a baby. Hospitals can provide services that midwives cannot. I just think that it's good to at least think about. Assuming your pregnancy is low-risk, why not try it? I don't know about anyone else, but personally I don't really feel comfortable in hospitals.

I'm a long way off from having to make these kinds of decisions. Who knows if and when I'll even have children. I'm glad I saw The Business of Being Born though. It gave me a lot to think about and really reminded me of the importance of doing research and developing your own birthing plan.

Everyone in America should watch this film, especially fathers and mothers-to-be.

As a father of two babies delivered by Caesarean section, my real life experience reflects what this film presents. With a first pregnancy, men like me might trust a maternity and birthing health care system that obviously is accepted by everyone we know. As an engineer and technologist, I am attracted to statistics and procedures, I am attracted to managed systems and to logical decision-making. And I understand that giving birth involves a lot of money, and that doctors, hospitals and health care companies have a burden in how to run a successful enterprise.

But the American birthing system is missing something very important... our humanity, our sensitivity, our vulnerability. Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein reveal the vulnerability of father, mother and child during pregnancy, how easily we allow a managed system to make decisions in the name of our well-being. When faced with an overwhelming majority of our family and friends who know only one way to give birth, in a hospital, there is little room for anything else.

This film challenges what we assume works, and informs us that there are alternatives accepted everywhere else in the world but in the United States. I pray that other mothers and fathers-to-be, for the sake of their children's' psychological and emotional health, will step up to the plate, become informed consumers about what is happening, and consider a traditional birth, at home.

Your first step is to see this film.

The Business is awesome. About as cool as the punk rock band the Business.

When the movie starts you wonder if the film quality and information in the film is worth it, I mean, it is a documentary. As the film goes on it get's better and better.

Even though I'm not sure if I agree with this film 100% (I haven't had time or necessity to research) I learned a monstrous amount of information and was blown away by how much I didn't know. B.O.B.B. OPENS UP YOUR EYES!

The best part was seeing women barely go through pain, though as the film goes on you do see more and more pain, but it does seem less in some ways than in the hospital.

I would have liked to know more about the dangers of death but they did touch on this mildly.