Business of Being Born

Last night we watched Rikki Lake's Business of Being Born. I saw this as sort of a Super Size Me for baby birthing. It is told from the perspective of home birth advocates and it shows the glory of that side while it shows traditional obstetricians as closed minded doctors who think you can only do birth with all the gadgets.

What I found most interesting is that the featured home birth advocates and midwives look at what they do as empowering. I see some of that - the field of obstetrics having turned the most natural of processes into something scary and clinical - but what I didn't understand was the pain of pregnancy being liberating. I guess you have to be a woman for that to make sense.

Tara had mentioned the possibility of home birth but it weirds me out. I'm a little more conventional and I am also a worrier so I think about what if there are problems and whatnot besides, insurance doesn't cover home birth which, they talk about in the movie. If you like these exposé type documentaries I would recommend it. Some of it was enlightening. Some of it I assumed and Tara knew. 

Warning: naked pregnant woman, surgery and childbirth are all explicitly shown.