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.

I see a lot of reviews on here saying this was awful because they felt it attacked them for wanting a medical birth, the saddest part is the film is about freedom of choice, something very limited in the hospital, not a smear campaign on mothers. In fact, to any women who felt this was an attack on their choice to birth in a hospital, remember how you feel right now, this is how natural birthers are treated constantly. If you are hurt over this, please be supportive next time you hear a mother/father wanting a home birth, instead of trying to prove to her your birth is the only way, be supportive. Your fear is her fear of medical birth, its not a contest, its about feeling safe wherever you birth. Its the same as attacking women for conceiving through sex rather than insemination. Its safer to be inseminated, quicker and your risks for pain and stds are lower, but some of us prefer to conceive naturally, and guess what? Both are just fine.Your reviews are based on how it made you feel wronged and not about empowered choices for your daughters and grand- daughters, you are allowing your defensiveness to make you part of the problem. No one is a bad mother from birthing in a way they feel is needed to protect their child. You chose right, now help others to make their choices without persecution.

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.

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.

Like any good piece of propaganda, this movie starts by demonizing the OB/GYN profession (the enemy). The viewer is bombarded with images of early-20th century birthing practices as if they were still in use today. Having hospitals (and of course, insurance companies) set up as the "bad guy", the movie portrays the alternative (midwives) as the "natural" solution. Moreover, home delivery is portrayed as the only real choice for a woman to express her femininity and individual power.

A few hand-picked critics of hospital births are chosen, who promptly spew out some convenient statistics in support of home delivery. Correlations (like infant mortality rates) are presented as causality without even discussing other potential factors. For example, the movie likes to recite the infant mortality rates in the US as being higher along with the higher rates of hospital vs. home births in other industrialized countries. However, at no time do these "experts" note factors like the relative experience levels of midwives in Europe vs. the US. Nor is a qualitative assessment provided that compares the level of care offered. Further, factors like miscarriages are not even discussed (if there are higher rates in Europe then these babies would not be reaching full term, thus diminishing infant mortality at birth), nor are other elements like obesity discussed (the US is the fattest nation of fatties in the world).

One of the things that stood out to me was the frequent use of absolutes in their arguments: "There's no scientific evidence" to support hospital delivery as better than home deliver, etc. etc. Nothing even close to resembling counter-arguments were presented, making this documentary Michael Moore worthy in its biased presentation of its content.

It's a shame something so delicate has been treated with such utter disregard for good science and disinterested research. The movie maker had a clear agenda and presented a completely one-sided argument. If you disagreed with home birth, you simply are a brainwashed fool ready to submit to fake doctors posing as OB/GYNs.

Perhaps the most hilarious part of the movie came at the end, as the filmmaker went into labor one month early with a 3.5 lb baby who was in the breached position, umbilical cord wrapped tightly around its neck, as her water broke in a taxi cab as she was rushed to the ER. In spite of this, the filmmaker mused a month later "I think I would have been OK at home." Wow.