Extra Credit- The Business of Being Born Vs. One Born Every Minute.

While in class we watched the Business of Being Born, and it really changed my mind about the ideas I had for when I have a child. I am pro-midwifery now, and when the time comes I would like to have a home birth. With that being said the show One Born Every Minute did not change my mind.

The only option I really knew about, prior to the movie, in regards to birthing was a hospital birth. Now knowing that there are other options there are things about the home birth that I love versus traditions/ rules about hospital births that I really dislike. I loved that the women that had home births could freely move and take off all thier clothes so that they are completely comfortable. The women on One Born Every Minute remained in a laying down stationary position. That gives me feelings of illness. I guess because when your sick you are told to lay down and not to move. Having a baby is a happy time and certainly not anything like a sickness. The women in the hospital look incredibly uncomfortable!

Something else I loved about home births are that there are no drugs involved. As a person who does not like taking medication I always hated the idea that I would have to get "drugged up" at the hospital in order to have a baby. Its refreshing to know that is NOT the case with a home birth. I want to be able to remember and feel every moment of the birth of my child. On One Born Every Minute the mother-to-be named Kristian was asked if she wanted an epidural relatively shortly after she began experiencing what looked like only uncomfortable cramps. From what we discussed in class what she was experiancing was not hard labor. She even admitted that she didn't have luck with them in the past, but she still wanted to take it anyway. That made no sense to me. It is almost like she took the epidural just because that is what was expected or "normal".

The fathers in One Born Every Minute are also less engaged and involved then that of the fathers who are involved in the home births. 
 
Another issue was that the experiences of the women of One Born Every Minute are scary. Even though they try to make the show light-hearted the experience of those women appear much more tense then those of the mothers in The Business of Being Born. Those women seem so at peace and calm. They are in pain but it is not the agony that the One Born Every Minute mothers are feeling. I was frankly always afraid of the idea of giving birth one day because all the horror stories that are shown on television and movies, but while things can happen with home deliveries they don't seem to happen as frequently.


I also did not like that Nikki, one of the One Born Every Minute mothers, was told that because she was not dilating fast enough for her doctors they might have to give her a C-section. She was really scared about that idea and I would be too, but they didn't really seem to care that much. That is terrible! She should be able to be in labor for as long as it take for the child to be born naturally. The nurse said that the baby was under stress being in labor so long, but I don't know that I believe that after watching The Business of Being Born. I say that because in that movie the doctors interviewed admit that some doctors will say anything to speed the birth along and it seemed that they are counting on an average mother's ignorance. In the hospital setting it seems that the only people who know what is "best" for the baby is the doctor and the mothers just go along with it. Whereas, with the mothers in the movie who had the home birth with the mid-wife were made comfortable enough that they could freely speak their minds and say how they feel and what they wanted to do. In those cases the power was given back to the mothers. 

I have to say ultimately I know that the option of having a mid-wife or hospital birth depends on certain factors, but I sincerely hope that I am able to have a home birth because the benefits far out way any risk in my opinion.