The Business of Being Born

*Remember to pause the music on my blog before you watch...


Wow, there is alot that I could write about with this movie. When it comes out on DVD, which I think it has already with Netflix, (which we don't subscribe to) I am for sure going to be watching this documentary.

Now let me start off with a disclaimer here. :) I am not against hospital births. I had one, and I *needed* it. How do I know that I needed it? Because I, from the start I *wanted* a home birth. We aquired a mid-wife, and made our plans. Unfortunatly, those plans didn't work out they way we had hoped. The reason I knew I needed the hosital birth, was when I said I couldn't take the pain anymore, my midwife agreeded. But I'll share with you why on another day. :)

But, if I didn't have a mid-wife and went with a doctor right away, I know for a fact that I would of had a C-section. Maybe in the weeks to come, I'll share my birth stories with ya'll. But lets just say that, everything that the movie was showing in the clips is pretty true.

When I was transfered from home to the hospital, after a while I was given pitocin. The nurse told me it was because my contractions were pretty strong when I arrived, but then they started to peeter out. She (the nurse) gave it to me when I was sleeping! I didn't even say they could give it to me!Grrrr... Unfortunantly at that point, I could care less. I was tired, and I wanted that baby to get out!

After my hospital birth I went on to have two more totally natural births at home. With Tiny Boy my contractions "peetered"out for about an hour. I realized later, that my body just perhaps does that to rest itself.

In the long run, I *almost* had to "have" a C-section. If I hadn't had my midwife to begin with, I would of been a classic C-section candiate. Why? Well, most Dr's. break the bag of waters right when you get in the hospital. Once they do that, you are not allowed to be in labor for over 24 hours. Then if you are in labor for that long with your waters broken, they would say that you are "failor" to progress, and you "need" to have a C-section. And many times, because the baby doesn't have any more fluid, the baby becomes distressed, cause an "emergency" C-section.

At the time I arrived at the hospital, I was 4cm, my bags of water had not broken, but I had been in labor for 24 hours already. If I had entered the hospital as a planned birth, they would of broken my waters, I would of been in labor over 24 hours, thus needed the C-section.

Thankfully the doctor my midwife recomended as a back up doctor for transfers had a natural birth mindset, and he wouldn't allow them to break my water. I was in labor 12 more hours after that. The Dr. was worried at one point that I would end up "needing" a C-section. But thankfully, he didn't rush it, and at the last minute, I began to progress.

That Dr. stayed at the hospital all night to make sure he delivered my baby. I believe that rarely happens. Or they come to the hospital when the nurses call him and let them know that they are almost ready to push.
He knew my midwife (as he was the dr. that my midwife trained under) and he learned a few things from her about natural child birth.

One thing that really is a pet peeve of mine is, that women blindly follow their doctor's advice, and just do what the doctors tell them to without thinking one thing about it. I really could care less that woman choose to have hospital births. There are times when I believe it is absolutely needed. There are times when pain relief is needed. (Hey I asked and took that opition when I was in labor with my first. My midwife agreed with me.) And there are "true" emergecy situations that do require C-sections.

But the majority of the time, women just follow the dr's orders and don't research their options or statistics on their own. And if they do, they get frightened by "horror" stories, and "what if they were not at the hosipital, when they were giving birth?" by well meaning friends and relatives. Thus they greatly increase their chances of having an un-needed C-section.

I am really trying not to sound judgmentle here over women that have hosptial births. I am not trying to make it sound like I am better than you. I really don't think that way.

I just wish that women would research more. We all must choose for oursleves and what is best for our own families. What I want to do, is inform you, so you can make that decison based on facts, rather than emotional manipulation that the medical community often does use. I know because I too have been subjected to that. ;-)

Anyway, please don't take this the wrong way. I'll still love you if you had your baby the conventional method. ;-) But at the same time, try to reasearch your options based on facts. :)