Abundant Blessings Farm

The Business Of Being Born

Honey, Rebecca and I watched a movie on Saturday that has just stayed in my mind... It was done by Rikki Lake and is called The Business Of Being Born. She has a website of the same name.

While I am biased towards home birth due to my own birth experiences, I do recognize that there are women who should not choose to birth at home due to medical issues. The rest of this post will have nothing to do with that aspect...it will apply to those with low risk pregnancies.

What struck me was that the act of giving birth has been taken away from women. They are told that this is a medical problem to be fixed. Not that it is a normal function of the human body. God perfectly designed a woman's body to not only conceive a babe, but also to birth that same babe.

I've never birthed in a hospital. We've had two birth center births and two home births.

Here are my birth stories, in short form! (you're welcome!!) When I became pregnant with my first, Rebecca, we automatically sought out an alternative to a hospital birth. We found a free standing birth center about an hour away from us. We had excellent care there...and a wonderful birth experience.  Next came Thomas. At the time, we had a few friends who had home birthed. Since our experience birthing Rebecca was such a good one, and after much prayer, we felt we were to birth at home. Unassisted. Yes, on purpose. His birth was very different than Rebecca's....perhaps due to the fact that he was 3 pounds heavier than she was! (Rebecca was 6lbs, 3 oz and Thomas was 9lbs, 3 oz). Other than a bit of "is he okay" due to the cord being around his neck and his not breathing immediately, all was fine. It was another positive experience.

A couple of years later, God blessed us with Natalie. I was nearing 30 years old. And I was tired. All the time. We prayed...and waited. Finally, we felt God leading us back to the birth center for her birth. No big issues. She had snug shoulders, so the midwife had to help ease her out...but no problems. She was our biggest babe at 9lbs, 12oz.

Once again, God blessed us with another babe. This time, the birth center had closed. Bummer. We tried to use the midwife that used to own the birth center..but she was not a good match for us. How thankful we were to find a homebirth midwife!!! She was wonderful. After a 3 hour labor, 9lb, 7oz Mary was born. Our midwife barely made it there for her birth!!

Since I have such positive experiences with birth, I am not afraid of it. Sure there is pain. But, it is pain that can be tolerated. Each contraction brings that babe closer to being in my arms. I don't want to be doped up and not feel what's happening to my babe and body. I don't believe that those drugs have no effect on the babe. Please...how is that possible?? When I was birthing Natalie, I was given penicillin via iv due to a positive Group B strep test. So, this iv medicine was given so that it WOULD pass the umbilical cord to my babe, but we are to believe that all the drugs given via iv during labor do not pass to the babe? Why? Cause the Dr wouldn't want the Mama to know what's really happening.

Watching this movie opened my eyes. I've never been a fan of hospital birth. I am not sick, I am pregnant. There's a difference. Just as we don't go to the Dr unless we are sick, we don't go to the hospital unless we are sick. That's where sick people go! This movie showed that most labors are given pitocin to induce labor...to "speed things along"....then if Mama has a reaction to that, they give another drug. If labor is speeded up too much, they give a drug to slow it down. The movie showed that babes do react to the drugs. One way is from the pitocin. That the contractions induced by pitocin are stronger, longer and more intense than naturally occuring ones. This is hard on the babe. It restricts their aireway....gee...wonder why the heart rate would slow down during a pitocin induced labor??

Another area that got to me...is the insurance aspect. They willingly fork over thousands of dollars for a hospital birth, while denying midwive's fees. Hmm...I thought insurance companies were all about the bottom line? Aren't they the ones who rush women out of the hospital after birth due to cost? Then why do they pay an average cost of $10,000 for a hospital bill PLUS the OB bill of an average of $5.000 but refuse a midwife's bill of $4,000 for EVERYTHING? The midwife's bill will be for all prenatal care, birth, and post-natal care. Hmmm...so do you think the hospitals and Dr's have something going with the insurance companies? Nah...couldn't be!

One woman in the movie said that birth had been taken away from women. That we've been told for so long how much it's going to hurt. And how we need to be in the hospital to deliver. Gee...if it's so great to hospital birth and billions of dollars are spent on them, why oh why is the United States ranked 37th in infant mortality????? We should be number one....we spend the most on birth...yet we are 37th! How can that be????!

And if I had a dollar for every time I've been told by a woman who learned we homebirthed "I'd be dead", I'd be a wealthy woman! My answer is always the same..."I'm glad you didn't home birth then." Again, it's not for everyone, but it's for alot more women than currently do it!

I did attend one friend's birth. She ended up with a c-section. I do believe it was necessary at the time...but I also believe it was only necessary due to the hospital practices, not because she couldn't push her baby out. Had she not taken an epidural, she would have been able to let gravity help her and get on all fours to push her babe out. But, lying flat on her back (the worst position to birth in), and not being able to move or feel anything, made her unable to push him out.

If you have an opportunity to watch this movie, I'd highly recommend it. If you have Netflix, it's available for instant viewing. I won't say it's the greatest movie...but it is very thought provoking. The information is presented very well. And it's rather eye opening...

So, that's my rant for today. Again, I realize that not all women are comfortable with home birth, but then, why aren't they????

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{ 12:03, Tuesday, June 3, 2008 } { Posted by GypsyFarmGirl }

You are so not kidding, the world today act as though, birth, a womans period, and having gas pains is all something that just got discovered.Boy do I have a story to tell about being induced with my 2 children and it wasnt needed!! Man if I could go back to my young naieve self I would say NO to the DR's that had me induced.

JEANNIE

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{ 10:32, Tuesday, June 3, 2008 } { Posted by gabbie427 }

I enjoyed reading this post and how you succesfully delivered your babies without the hosptial.

I had a different experience. We had a wonderful midwife for the birth of Noah, but she delivers in the local hospital. She can handle anything you want though. I told her no drugs and if I begged and pleaded, she was still to give me no drugs. LOL I was able to experience everything, walk (on drugs they don't let you sometimes), and my nurse rubbed my back, allowed me to sit in the water bath (almost delivered in there too!), and it was a great experience.

She delivers in the hospital so the insurance companies can pay for it, and the other OB doctor is on call for any emergencies like a c section birth. The only thing she can not do is the c section.

Thanks for writing and sharing this!

God's Blessings,
Amy Jo

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{ 03:14, Tuesday, June 3, 2008 } { Posted by Citygal }

This sounds an interesting movie. I'm one of those ones that have to have my babies in a hospital. I would LOVE to be able to experience a homebirth - as my sister has done, but somehow my body doesn't do what it's supposed to. I go into labour ok, but it just never progresses to the next stage. I've had hard contractions 10 minutes apart for 3 days continuous before the doctor had to give me something to go to the next stage. It's very exhausting. I've had an epidural once (hopefully never again), but with the other two I had no pain killers at all and delivered naturally. Each pregnancy I always hope it will be different, but it's the same every time. I really admire women who homebirth, because I would love to experience that, and I believe it is the best way. I do not like hospital births, but I cannot change the fact that I have to have them, and I'm grateful for the medical help - I hate to think what it would have been like for women like me 100 years or so ago.
I'm under a specialist for this coming baby too - and once again I'm hoping it will be different and better for me.

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{ 11:53, Tuesday, June 3, 2008 } { Posted by Anonymous }

I've been wanting to download this movie from Netflix for the last couple of weeks and just haven't got around to it yet.

I think maybe the first step is in convincing Dr's and women that it is OK for birth to hurt. Most women would be more open to a home birth if they were planning a drug free birth. I know that a lot of women just don't want to feel the pain or are afraid of it and view modern drugs as a God send, but they are ignoring the stats about the complications these drugs can cause.

I believe that the pain is part of the process. Personally, I WANT to feel the pain of natural childbirth - the pain is what tells me my body is doing its job! I view natural birth as a challenge - to control myself and my reaction to pain. I hate narcotics and am to big of a control freak to get an epidural (I don't want to give up my ability to walk). Besides, I always remind myself that it can't be very easy for the baby being born - if the baby can "take it" than so can I. Birth is our very first major experience together, so I feel obligated and committed to be fully aware and present - not drugged up.

It was good to see you tonight. We all need to brush up onour trivia - I can't believe we came in 2nd!

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{ 09:39, Saturday, June 7, 2008 } { Posted by Schatzi }

Thanks for a great post...I had all of my children in the hospital but because we live in Canada we never paid any fee. My first children was born by emergency c-section...had we not been in the hospital both of us probably would have died...if not me, definately my dd...I never had any intention of doing a home birth probably because of fear. But my sister did do a homebirth and everything was fine.

Isn't it great we live in a country of freedom.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Connie