Read all. Sign In. Play trailer Director Abby Epstein. Top credits Director Abby Epstein. See more at IMDbPro. Trailer The Business of Being Born. Photos Top cast Edit. Louann Brizendine Self as Self. Michael Brodman Self as Self. Patricia Burkhardt Self as Self. Ronaldo Cortes …. Eugene Declerq Self as Self. Eden Fromberg …. Abby Epstein. More like this. Watch options. Storyline Edit. Focusing on New York City, the film reveals that there is much to distrust behind hospital doors and follows several couples who decide to give birth on their own terms.
There is an unexpected turn when director Epstein not only discovers she is pregnant, but finds the life of her child on the line.
Should birth be viewed as a natural life process, or should every delivery be treated as a potential medical emergency? Not Rated. Did you know Edit. Connections Features The Meaning of Life User reviews 18 Review. Top review. A film about birthing at home; you will be surprised by what you see.
This movie is terrific. I had my doubts when I learned it was produced by and starring Ricki Lake, I admit. But it is sensitive, interesting, intellectual, captivating, and incredibly moving. It was not manipulative, but by the end, the entire audience was in tears. The most important thing about this film is that it shows the public what birth can be, for both the mother and baby. You see several homebirths, nothing too intimate unless you consider the incredible post-birth high that somehow permeates the screen and affects the viewer, to be too close for comfort.
No dilating vaginas or body fluids, sorry to disappoint. But what it does show is something that almost no one, especially not doctors I am one , get to see. A natural birth with no intervention where things go right. In my medical training, I attended hundreds of births. I probably saw one or two with no medical intervention in the hospital. My hospital birth was normal, with no problems, but I had interventions despite having told my OB and mentor that I didn't want any.
It does not idealize birth per se, except by showing how simple birth can be without medicalization. But the volunteers of this midwife to be filmed were not excluded if there is a problem; one of the births requires transfer so you see how that is handled as well. The film educates people about the history of birth in this country, how things are done in other countries including Europe, and shows statistics about birth there are more than they include in the medical literature that will probably surprise a lot of people.
I wouldn't say that the film is about Ricki Lake. Wagner notes that in those countries, physicians intervene in only the small percentage of childbirths that have complications, which can include excessive vaginal bleeding, prolonged labor, and uterine rupture.
Following the interview with Wagner, the film shows a new image that states the US has the second highest newborn death rate in the developed world, though it does not say which country is number one.
In the documentary, Eugene Declerq, a professor at Boston University School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, claims that out of the seven countries that have over , births each year, the US has the highest rate of infant mortality. According to Declerq, physicians and researchers believe that the high infant mortality rate results from poorer overall health of women in the US, and resulting complications during childbirth.
During the documentary, Robbie Davis-Floyd, a medical anthropologist, details the birthing process in the hospital. According to Davis-Floyd, physicians prefer women not to have long labors because it can increases the risk of complications. If labor is weak or lasts too long without progressing, a physician will administer pitocin, a drug that causes the pregnant woman to have uterine contractions that are longer and more intense to help further the childbirth process.
Pregnant woman can receive an epidural to manage the pain of the contractions. However, epidurals can cause labor to slow down. Davis-Floyd notes that physicians will often administer more pitocin to counteract the effects of the epidural. If the fetus goes into distress, a physician will often recommend to deliver the fetus via caesarean section.
Davis-Floyd notes that in this situation one intervention leads to another. He states that the initial intervention of pitocin is often unnecessary in the first place. Following the discussion of childbirth in the hospital, Davis-Floyd describes a delivery method called twilight sleep that was common in the early twentieth century. Twilight sleep was a delivery method first used in Germany in the s. By , the method was used in the US. Twilight sleep used the combination of two drugs, morphine and scopolamine , to alleviate pain during childbirth.
The combination of morphine and scopolamine caused the pregnant woman to not feel pain during labor and be unable to form new memories, so she had no recollection of childbirth.
According to Davis-Floyd, twilight sleep was popular in the mid-twentieth century and a large number of women used during delivery. Though the documentary does not mention it, twilight sleep was dangerous because it often caused severe side effects such as fetal suffocation that could cause the fetus to die, women having no memory of their labor, and a risk of an overdose.
After Davis-Floyd discusses the use of twilight sleep, Wagner is interviewed again and explains the history of childbirth. However by the s, researchers discovered that the radiation from the x-rays often caused cancer in the infants. Later in the s and s, a drug called thalidomide, which physicians prescribed to pregnant women experiencing severe nausea, caused severe birth defects , including deformities of the limbs.
Wagner explains that physicians in the s administered a new drug called Cytotek to induce labor in pregnant women who had previously given birth via cesarean sections. Later in the documentary, Patricia Burkhardt, a clinical associate professor, discusses the increase in home births with the assistance of midwives.
According to Burkhardt, in the s home-births and midwives increased due to a national childbirth movement prompted by negative reactions to twilight sleep. Due to the negative effects of twilight sleep, many pregnant women in the US did not want to go to the hospital for childbirth and face having no memory of their labor, a risk of an overdose, and possibly fatal harm to the fetus.
Instead, pregnant women chose to give birth at home and with the assistance of midwives. After the discussion of midwives and home-births, the film shows another image to discuss the rate at which women obtained caesarean sections as a delivery method. According to the film, the rate of caesarean sections in the US increased forty-six percent from to Continuing in the documentary, Wagner discusses the amount of money the US spends on childbirth compared to other countries.
According to Wagner, the US pays twice as much for childbirth compared to any other country. Furthermore, countries that spend one-third the amount of the US experience better outcomes, such as reduced maternal and fetal mortalities. Although she wanted a home birth, the fetus was breech, or was positioned in the uterus feet first, a difficult and often dangerous position for delivery.
She was rushed to the hospital. At the hospital, the documentary shows Epstein deliver a boy, Matteo, via caesarean section. In the last few minutes of the film, Epstein and Matteo receive a follow-up visit eight months after the delivery. Lake interviews Epstein about her experience during childbirth. Epstein notes that she did not have the amount of bonding time with Matteo that she had expected with a home birth and experienced a harder time breastfeeding. In addition, Epstein states she felt she missed out on the home birth experience, but acknowledged that going to the hospital was the safest option for her scenario.
Keywords: hospital births , natural childbirth. Sources Lake, Ricki. Posted January Printer-friendly version PDF version.
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