The Business of Being Born

After watching both media portrayals of birth, I’ve definitely developed a different perception of the birthing process. While both make sure not to sugarcoat the difficult, yet rewarding process and all the decisions that come along with it, they definitely display it from different angles and point of views.

As the documentary argues, many women in the United States are unaware of all their options as well as the effects of each one. For this reason, many trust their doctor’s blindly, feeling that should rely on the experts. However as the film points out, the United States has the highest birth mortality rate for an industrialized country due to all the interventions used to speed up the process/numb the pain. Often times, as the title reveals, the birthing process is viewed as a business negotiation between families and hospitals. It’s convenient for hospitals to have the births happen quickly and smoothly to move on to the next one, therefore surgeons will intervene with whatever procedure they deem necessary.

For instance in the episode I watched, “Mama Knows Best” one of the mothers was having a difficult time inducing her labor and after 16 hours was told by one of the nurses that she would most likely need a C-section. The mother immediately began to cry and complain that she did not want her baby to be isolated away from her and that she really wanted a natural birth. However, after 24 hours she was too tired to fight it and was brought into the surgery room. The documentary on the other hand, I feel empowers women to view themselves as the sole decision makers and to trust their bodies’ abilities. Home births were portrayed as beautiful moments that although looked very painful because of the lack of drugs were still more comfortable for the woman. The women in the film were free to take their time and connect with their babies immediately after birth, sometimes even pulling out the baby themselves. Essentially proving to viewers that women need to have control of their health and their baby's health and that they're strong enough to make it happen without the need of drugs and surgeons unless it's necessary.