I read an article today on MSNBC about home births increasing. There is a natural birth trend that has been growing for the past few years. Have you seen Ricki Lake's documentary The Business of Being Born? The film follows several pregnant women, Ricki Lake included, who have home births with midwives and *gulp* no pain medication.
It's quite an interesting movie (yes of course I've seen it!) as it goes beyond anecdotal evidence of how natural births are amazing (and painful) to the science of the human body, pregnancy and bonding.
While I can't say how I will choose to give birth (when that happens long down the road), I do have to agree with a point in the movie about the natural being taken out of childbirth by health care. Doctors are 1: concerned about lawsuits maybe a bit too much to think holistically and 2: OB/GYNs want a 9-5 schedule so hey let's endorse C-sections. Then there is the systemic disqualification of midwives and their competencies. I knew a nurse midwife who shared with me stories of being escorted out of a hospital because doctors would not give her privileges there and doctors refusing to work with her or her peers.
What do you guys think? Would you have a home birth? Do you think midwives should be recognized as professionals who can assist in birth?
For the record, I think this would be me without pain medication:
Have you seen the movie? It was cute but I loved this whole scene especially Jada Pinkett Smith's character, while sobbing, 'I did it! I did it!' Hahahaha
If only birth were like this:
Resources:
Natural Childbirth
Midwives Alliance of North America
American College of Nurse-Midwives
- A
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