Movie: The Business of Being Born

[nex0s]

I'm not going to pretend that I don't have a bias, because I was already in the homebirthing camp before I saw The Business of Being Born as a result of the birth experience of one of my best friends, a woman I refer to as "The Mama" in this journal

Comments

[sashajwolf]

I saw a very similar film when I was pregnant with orangebird, and it was very helpful. I chose a hospital birth for that because of my circumstances at the time (living in a shared and somewhat cramped student house - not the right sort of environment for a home birth), and because I haemorrhaged afterwards, chose hospital again for the other two births - but I did choose a hospital with a lower Caesarean rate than our local hospital, as well as researching other aspects of the care. The average rate in the UK at that time was 15%, but in our local hospital it was 50%; it was a university hospital, so I'd expect them to get slightly more problematic cases than average - but since maternity was not one of their specialisms, it shouldn't have been that much higher. The hospital where orangebird was born was a specialist unit, also in a teaching hospital, and had a rate of 17% IIRC.

I used gas-and-air in all three labours and TENS in the second and third. Both worked very well for me. Sitting in warm water was not such a good idea for me because it stopped the contractions altogether (even when I was already about 5cm dilated, so labour had been well-established), and it was difficult to get them started again. I also found in the pushing stage that I personally push more effectively on my back with my feet in stirrups than sitting or squatting upright, and I also push more effectively if I don't yell a lot - that seemed to disperse the energy I had, whereas if I was quieter, it naturally directed itself downwards and let me push more strongly. YMMV, obviously :-)

[nex0s]

Of course YMMV! I'll note though that you are in the UK and the system I believe is significantly different.

Here in my city, the lowest rate hospital was one in the Bronx that had an 18% rate ... and was one of the TWO hospitals with a birthing center... a birthing center that has just been "temporarily closed" this past month. Interestingly enough, the poorer the neighborhood, the lower the CSection rate. Which suggests some scary things about insurance and greed.

You'll note that in my review I say that if I am not high risk I'll do it. I might be high risk due to age, but maybe not.

N.