I just want to go on record that I LOVE the film The Business of Being Born. Last night, on its 10-year anniversary, I went to a screening of the film at a favorite local theater. The screening was hosted by 2 of the amazing and brave women featured giving birth in the film and both Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein were there! Also on a Q & A panel were a local midwife, and 2 experts on birth in our culture.
The main topic of the Q & A was the extent of the impact that the film has had on our birth culture. It’s been a pretty phenomenal 10 years…..in a good way.
The overall cesarean rate has remained steady instead of increasing a point each year as had been the trend for so long. Midwifery practices in many areas are flourishing. Midwives are attending a higher number of births in hospitals. New birthing centers are opening in many areas. Hospital policies are changing in BIG ways that better support a normal birth. Even small things like allowing for cervical checks every 4 hours instead of every hour can have a HUGE impact on the decisions that are being made about a birth. Many of these policies have been changed as a result of this film either directly or indirectly based on what women are beginning to demand after seeing it.
These changes don’t guarantee perfect or natural birth for all, but they do offer something even more valuable…..
Women are beginning to have a louder voice in the decision making process. We are feeling justified in becoming better advocates for ourselves and for our families. This film has given so many women the courage to advocate for themselves which is vital for having positive feelings about our births. For most women, feeling good about our births is not about having the the most natural birth, or the most pain-free birth, or the birth that is most like our fantasies. It’s more about feeling that we had some control over what happened to us. Is about feeling that our care providers were interested in hearing what we wanted and needed. We want to feel like we were at least part of a team working together towards a goal.
So often, women do not feel empowered in this way. Way too often women express that they just felt like a cog being pushed through the factory assembly line. When this happens, she doesn’t feel positive about her birth experience, even when it technically met her expectations.
I’m so glad to have been able to attend this event and fully realize the value of this film. I saw it soon after its release when I was pregnant with my first baby. It confirmed a lot of what I felt and made me feel less “weird” for wanting the kind of birth that I did. Since then, I’ve had another baby and have become a birth professional. I had been feeling pretty pessimistic about the state of our birth industry based on some personal experiences. Seeing the bigger picture at this event really helped to inspire me in a new way.
Things are happening for the better. I feel like change is slow but coming. We just need to keep doing what we’re doing in little ways everyday.
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