More of the Business of Being Born -- A Video

Many women have seen the first video by Rikki Lake and Abby Epstein, "The Business of Being Born".  Tonight I watched the sequel, "More of the Business of Being Born" by the same producers.  It contained a fascinating interview with Ina Mae Gaskins (who wrote the books Spiritual Midwifery, Ina Mae's Guide to Childbirth, and Ina Mae's Guide to Breastfeeding) and some other midwives.  Ina Mae knows birth.  She has been a careful student of the natural process of birth and does an excellent job of explaining why certain things happen the way the do.  She discusses the "due date" and what this really means.  She also raises some questions as to how routine medical interventions affect both mother and baby during and after the birth process.  She questions the effects of Pitocin and other drugs on the mother and baby, rushing the pushing stage, delivering the placenta before it is ready to be delivered, and limiting labor to a certain number of hours before doing a C-section.   She also talks about some of the more common reasons for maternal deaths -- including repeat C-sections and the use of the drug Cytotec to induce labor, which, on occasion, seems to result in amniotic fluid embolus. While Ina Mae does not mention this in the video, it is important for women to know that Cytotec has not been approved by the FDA for use in pregnant women. 

The statistics Gaskins quotes are impressive and should cause women and care providers to stop and think more carefully about how to approach labor for the low risk mother and low risk baby.




The midwives on "The Farm", a commune in Tennessee, have attended approximately 2800 deliveries.  They have back up at a local hospital and will transport when "red flags" occur, although this is a rare occurrence.  Their C-section rate is 1.7%, almost 20 times lower than the current US rate.  They have no cases of babies born who were later diagnosed with autism. While many babies were past due, only a handful had the actual signs related to being truly post mature.



Reasons for the explosion in medical interventions are discussed.  These include loss of skills due to the type of training physicians receive in medical schools, and influence from insurance companies.  Gaskins points out that even with all the new technologies, the maternal death rate has doubled in the past 20 or so years in this country.  She is an avid reader of research material and has learned to read German in order to read medical studies written in that language.

I am about to become a grandmother again, and I will be recommending this video and others in this series to my grand baby's parents. My daughter in law, like all women, deserves to know as much as possible and/or as much as she desires to know about her choices. I will NOT be recommending a home birth and I will NOT be recommending a hospital birth.  That decision is hers to make after she explores all the options.  She is a smart woman, and I can trust she will do what is best for her and her baby.

My other daughter in law has had three hospital births.  She and my son have stated that if they have baby number 4, they are considering a home birth.  Again, they are intelligent people and should baby number 4 be conceived, they will make the decision right for them.

I know this video can be found on Netflix.  It is also available via http://www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com   

It can be a challenge to trust the natural birth process God created.  After all, we live in a fallen world.  Still, the more we learn about it, and the more we learn about interventions which can change the course of labor for better or worse, we can see that when women are able to trust His design and work WITH it, the process itself has fewer complications and the outcomes are better overall.  I do not know Ina Mae's relationship with Jesus Christ.  Like many people with her background, she would probably say that she was "spiritual".  It is clear that her years of working with women in pregnancy and birth has lead her to acknowledge and even reverences the beauty and dynamics of birth, as evidenced by this quote: