Movie: The Business of Being Born
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
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On the other hand, I would NEVER give birth in a medicalized practice. Even though I had Alex in a hospital, I used independent midwives with very low rates of interventions - so much so that I remember my birthing class instructor saying, "Okay, you're all clients of Kathy Slone, which means that I can skip the section on how to refuse an induction..."
I had a fantastic, low-intervention birth even though, with my disabilities, I had huge medical indicators suggesting that I was a likely C-section candidate. I think my good birth came largely from selecting the right providers.
Endorsing a hospital midwife birth is tricky, though. I read a really good book a couple of years ago: Giving Birth: A Journey into the World of Mothers and Midwives. It explores the way that midwifery is being co-opted by the medical establishment, where hospitals and OB practices are hiring midwives because they're cheaper and women like the touchy-feeliness, but then they're not really letting them practice midwifery. Hospital midwives are often directed by physicians behind the scenes, required to adhere to the 1cm-per-hour labor clock, etc.
So I caution anyone who's thinking of a hospital-based midwife birth, especially with a practice that also includes OBs, to ask probing questions about how independent the midwives really are. There are fully independent midwives who deliver in hospitals without the supervision of a physician - I know, because I gave birth with one. But that's not the only kind of hospital midwife.
nex0s, have you read Henci Goer's The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth? It seems like something you'd really like.
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Right now though, I'm going to be pushing (LOL) for a homebirth. I feel that in NYC, the derth of birthing centers is a HUGE issue, and I feel that it's pretty much hospital or home here.
N.
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