Mutterings Of A Mindless Mommy

Last night I was finally able to watch Ricki Lake’s birth documentary The Business of Being Born.  I signed up for a Netflix account which includes live streaming video (what a great idea!) and one of the documentaries available was The Business of Being Born.  Now I want to start off by saying that I had one very medicalized birth (induced for pre-ecclampsia, pitocin, magnesium sulfate, stadol, phenergen, etc).  I actually fell asleep while pushing my son out.  I remember the doctor calling my name and then reminding me that I need to push.  I only pushed for about 15 minutes total so I guess I was doing it right (this was my first child).

I wanted a more natural childbirth with my second but ended up with preterm labor (dilating at 26 weeks and ten weeks on bedrest) so went with an OB out of fear.  I wasn’t induced but caved and got an epidural (which only worked on the left half of my body, nice).  Despite my medicalized births, most of my momma friends deliver their babies at home - yup, home births.  Heck some of them even had unassisted homebirths - that is no midwife or other birth professional present.  Lake’s documentary has been discussed heavily among my momma friends so it was time for me to watch it.

I have to say it was a fantastic film and I really wish that something like that would have been available when I was pregnant.  My one regret with my second pregnancy is that I didn’t try harder to research my options.  I ended up delivering at 36 weeks so I’m not sure if I would have been “allowed” to deliver at home however had I had even a birth doula then I probably could have had a natural childbirth.

If you are at all interested in normal, natural childbirth I cannot recommend this movie highly enough.  It really shows viewers the sheer beauty of birth.  One scene that really touched me was shortly after a mom gave birth, her son (I’m guessing he was 18-24 months) came over and patted his new baby sibling on the head.  You just don’t get that in a hospital because the baby is whisked away to the warming table for examination. 

We wanted Alexander to be at his sister’s birth but mommy hooked up to machines and the beeping just didn’t work for my sensory defensive son.  He was able to come in and peek at his baby sister shortly after she was born but he was so overwhelmed by it all that he was pretty much disinterested.  Had she been delivered in a more natural environment, it is likely that he would have acted differently.