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

[docorion]

I dismissed it for some of the same reasons. And honestly, a conversation I had recently with my partner did not encourage male students to enter that field, either; we were searching for a new to her OB/GYN, and as we looked over the on-line lists, there were a fair number of male docs. Her comment: "What are they doing in OB/GYN anyway? It's not like they can have any understanding of bleeding from your crotch every month, or cramps, or pushing a watermelon out through your vagina" [paraphrased, but pretty accurate].

That was always the feeling I got when on an OB/GYN rotation in school; the clear sense of 'What the hell are you doing here, boy?' Emphasis on the 'boy'. Well, what I hoped I was doing there was learning OB/GYN, which I would need to know some things about whether I was a boy or not, since even in most other fields one ends up caring for, oh, 50% women :-)

Tragedy follows one wherever one goes in medicine; you can choose less or more (not a lot of tragedy in dermatology, but there is still some). Tragedy involving babies, though, is harder than most. I've done some work in the NICU during residency, and lost a couple of babies (and saved one, which was the shining moment of the NICU for me); it sucked pretty hard for me. I can't imagine what it was like for the parents.

[la_directora]

I have to admit that I fall into the camp that GREATLY prefers a female OB/GYN, though I don't have the same feelings of, "What are you doing here?" for men who practice in that branch of medicine. But my theory has always been that I wouldn't buy a car from someone who doesn't know how to drive. :) I just also accept that everyone doesn't feel the same way.