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I just watched a documentary called "The Business of Being Born" and it's a piece on the state of the practice of midwifery in the modern U.S. I found it extremely informative and I highly recommend that people watch it to improve their knowledge about child birthing.
To a lot of people watching it, it would seem slanted towards favoring midwifery, but I don't think it's that way at all. When you assess the c-section rate in the U.S. compared to all other western nations in combination with the infant mortality rate, there is clearly something strange going on. The facts are undeniable, so if there is any apparent slant, it is based in real information and not simple opinion.
Something like 2% of childbirths have genuine complications requiring intervention and midwives are trained to investigate and make immediate decisions. For all the other women, the woman's body knows what to do and the woman just needs passive support during the process. The hospital environment is not conducive to empowering women to lead the process and relate positively to their own delivery experience; they arrive and are told what to do immediately, and decision making power is removed from them under the guise of the baby's "safety". Ironically, risk to the baby is increased due to the modern intervention methods, as I will mention later.
I've also heard a lot of arguments against midwifery, but as the film demonstrates, most of the MDs who speak out against it have never even witnessed a normal vaginal birth and are simply trained by the establishment to work against vaginal delivery in a lot of cases. They are being taught something that does not have a basis in sound medical science. Simultaneously, all OGBYNs can tell you that c-sections are major surgery and are much higher risk than vaginal birth, despite increased emphasis on c-section in the modern world. In fact, one in three women in the U.S. get a c-section, and in some districts the rates in hospitals are almost one in two. This is alarming given that there is nothing physiologically wrong with these women or their pregnancies that require one.
Hospitals are a business before they are centres of healing. Even a doctor in the film said that. Hospital delivery tends to revolve around the doctor's schedule, and not the schedule of the woman's body. For non-emergency situations, it's best to stay well away from hospitals. A piece of info. in the movie that I also knew prior to watching it is that the U.S. has the most expensive hospital child birthing process in the world, yet demonstrates the highest infant mortality rate.
Hospitals use drugs like pitocin (a synthetic oxytocin) to increase the rate and strength of contractions which creates more pain; then women are increasingly more likely to turn to epidurals for the pain, which reduces the effectiveness of contractions, so more pitocin is administered, and the cycle becomes a vicious one. Because pitocin creates abnormally strong contractions that last longer than natural ones, it increases risk to the baby, and thus complications arise more often. In turn, doctors tell you that the baby is at risk, and a c-section is necessary. The entire process becomes a domino effect. Even in scenarios with vaginal birth, doctors often turn to suction devices or forceps to pull the baby out sooner, and there is new research that shows this may be leading to the increase in child developmental disorders like autism due to the pressure exerted on the soft skulls of infants.
The history of using drugs to unnaturally influence the birthing process came into practice in the 1930's, and as the film outlines, there were some horrific consequences, like "twilight sleep", a result of using a drug called scopolamine. In the 90's a drug called cytotec used to induce labor was put into use despite lack of long term research, and hundreds of women died from a ruptured uterus. What the history of induced-labor practice demonstrates is that virtually all drugs used have no long term studies to determine their effects on mother or fetus, or the birthing process.
This movie will definitely give you a lot to think about, whether you are a man or woman, a current parent or prospective parent, or just someone interested in learning more. I highly recommend it.
To a lot of people watching it, it would seem slanted towards favoring midwifery, but I don't think it's that way at all. When you assess the c-section rate in the U.S. compared to all other western nations in combination with the infant mortality rate, there is clearly something strange going on. The facts are undeniable, so if there is any apparent slant, it is based in real information and not simple opinion.
Something like 2% of childbirths have genuine complications requiring intervention and midwives are trained to investigate and make immediate decisions. For all the other women, the woman's body knows what to do and the woman just needs passive support during the process. The hospital environment is not conducive to empowering women to lead the process and relate positively to their own delivery experience; they arrive and are told what to do immediately, and decision making power is removed from them under the guise of the baby's "safety". Ironically, risk to the baby is increased due to the modern intervention methods, as I will mention later.
I've also heard a lot of arguments against midwifery, but as the film demonstrates, most of the MDs who speak out against it have never even witnessed a normal vaginal birth and are simply trained by the establishment to work against vaginal delivery in a lot of cases. They are being taught something that does not have a basis in sound medical science. Simultaneously, all OGBYNs can tell you that c-sections are major surgery and are much higher risk than vaginal birth, despite increased emphasis on c-section in the modern world. In fact, one in three women in the U.S. get a c-section, and in some districts the rates in hospitals are almost one in two. This is alarming given that there is nothing physiologically wrong with these women or their pregnancies that require one.
Hospitals are a business before they are centres of healing. Even a doctor in the film said that. Hospital delivery tends to revolve around the doctor's schedule, and not the schedule of the woman's body. For non-emergency situations, it's best to stay well away from hospitals. A piece of info. in the movie that I also knew prior to watching it is that the U.S. has the most expensive hospital child birthing process in the world, yet demonstrates the highest infant mortality rate.
Hospitals use drugs like pitocin (a synthetic oxytocin) to increase the rate and strength of contractions which creates more pain; then women are increasingly more likely to turn to epidurals for the pain, which reduces the effectiveness of contractions, so more pitocin is administered, and the cycle becomes a vicious one. Because pitocin creates abnormally strong contractions that last longer than natural ones, it increases risk to the baby, and thus complications arise more often. In turn, doctors tell you that the baby is at risk, and a c-section is necessary. The entire process becomes a domino effect. Even in scenarios with vaginal birth, doctors often turn to suction devices or forceps to pull the baby out sooner, and there is new research that shows this may be leading to the increase in child developmental disorders like autism due to the pressure exerted on the soft skulls of infants.
The history of using drugs to unnaturally influence the birthing process came into practice in the 1930's, and as the film outlines, there were some horrific consequences, like "twilight sleep", a result of using a drug called scopolamine. In the 90's a drug called cytotec used to induce labor was put into use despite lack of long term research, and hundreds of women died from a ruptured uterus. What the history of induced-labor practice demonstrates is that virtually all drugs used have no long term studies to determine their effects on mother or fetus, or the birthing process.
This movie will definitely give you a lot to think about, whether you are a man or woman, a current parent or prospective parent, or just someone interested in learning more. I highly recommend it.