here’s a scary movie

(because you have to see several pregnant women naked. other than that, it’s not scary.)

The documentary “The Business of Being Born” covers some of the same ground as the book “Pushed.” While it is lighter in terms of the research and history presented, it carries a different kind of weight because of the images, the personal stories and births you get to actually watch. Woven throughout the movie are scenes of various home births accompanied by midwives. These scenes are altogether unlike the scary hospital birth melodramas we see on tv shows, where women are writhing and screaming, pinned down on beds. The women giving birth in the documentary are in pain, but they are in control, walking, changing position, moving into birthing tubs, doing whatever helps manage the pain. Watching them testifies to the fact that (for most,) giving birth is not a medical emergency, and shouldn’t be treated as such. It is a natural life process, and the woman’s body, with some guidance, knows what to do. Knows the best way to do it.

Here are a couple more interesting facts that show up in both the book “Pushed” and the documentary “The Business of Being Born”:

Giving birth laying flat on your back puts more strain on your body than almost any other position (unless someone out there wants to try giving birth while standing on her head). Standing or squatting, you have gravity to help you, and the structure of your pelvis is more open. Why do we use hospital beds? Maybe it’s a holdover from a time when doctors used to give women medicine to make them forget the birth entirely, and then tie them to the hospital bed and leave them in the corner until labor progressed enough.

The body naturally produces a special concoction of love-endorphins as the baby is born to help the mother deal with the pain, and to bond her to the baby. When a mother is on an epidural, however, the release of those endorphins is inhibited. (Could this lead to higher rates of post-partum depression?)

I prefer the book to the movie, but if you’re short on time, watch the movie. It’s a reasonable defense of midwifery and natural birth.