The Business of Being Born (2008)

Pros: This movie showed many of the little-known or acknowledged shortcomings of the medical industry's approach to childbirth. It gives a "one-sided" view because it's goal is to show the side of this process that is constantly swept under the rug. This movie helps remove some of the blinders Americans have on about the natural process of childbirth and shakes the pedestal we've placed the medical system on. It shows how motivations have drifted away from what's best for mothers and babies and now prioritize the convenience of medical staff and the premature use of interventions which increase risks and need for more interventions.Cons: One mother being followed through the process caves in and goes the unnatural rout after only a brief time of labor. They could have given more attention to home birth where stress and pressure are greatly reduced.

This movie was amazing. Since being pregnant I have done a lot of research into having my baby at the hospital vs. a birthing center. This movie just confirmed all the reasons plus more as to why I was against giving birth at the hospital. They sum it up very well in this movie by saying something along the lines of: Being pregnant is not an illness so why would you need to have a baby at the hospital. That is so true. As for the part of the movie where the director goes into labor early and has to have the baby at the hospital, that was just the perfect touch to the film that I think some may have not understood. Hospitals are great for when there is an emergency and you need additional help with the delivery and Midwifes are the first to admit that, I know mine is. Not ALL births go according to plan and c-sections etc are absolutely needed, but if your not one of those that need that extra help why should you have to be in a hospital bed for the most special moment in your life. I Give this movie 10++++ stars in capturing and explaining the truth on how child birth really is and should be. If your 100% against natural child birth this isn't the movie for you. But just because you might not understand it, doesn't mean you should wrongly judge this incredible movie for what it really is.

I am a mother of two, and I found this movie to be extremely offensive. How to give birth is a deeply personal choice. To suggest that a woman who chooses a hospital birth is ignorant, and to imply that she is less caring and loving about her child is uncalled for. Sure, some are uneducated, but in this day and age, most women diligently do their homework before entrusting theirs and their baby's lives into a doctor's hands. Both my children were born in the hospital, and every decision I made regarding their coming into this world had months of research behind it.Not everyone wants a hypothetical medal to go with their birth. What I wanted above all was a healthy baby, and I got it, twice. I was not forced to lie on my back, or to take pitocin, or to have my perineum sliced, or anything of the sort... What I did, twice, was give birth in a safe, clean environment, with my loved ones and competent medical staff who stuck by me and cared about me and my babies. And plenty of painkillers, thank you very much. I actually enjoyed giving birth. Which can't be said for my mom, who had me "naturally" and describes it as a "total nightmare". She had a normal pregnancy, yet things went wrong during labor: I had trouble breathing, and she had postpartum hemorrhage. Thankfully, even though her birth was unmedicated, she was at a hospital. Had she been at home, with no medical stuff or equipment available, we could've both ended up dead. Which only proves: giving birth is a deeply personal choice. What works for one woman may not work for another.Who are you, Ricki Lake, to decide what is best for me, and for the rest of us *dumb, weak American women* (that's how you come across, you know)? Should cancer patients just let their illness run its course without accepting the help of modern medicine, because that's what's "natural"? Don't get me wrong, by no means am I comparing having a baby to having a terminal disease, but fact is, both are medical conditions, and modern medical advances help people, not impair them. If you prefer to think that pain and uncertainty are wonderful things - by all means, this is a free country. But don't you even dare tell me that everyone should follow your lead. Don't you dare telling me that having painkillers somehow makes it less special for a woman, or worse for her kids. Every woman who gives birth still goes through 9 months of pregnancy, feels her baby kick, hears the heartbeat, and cries tears of happiness when she first sees the little one on that ultrasound screen. Every woman who gives birth wants, above all, a healthy baby. Every woman wants to remember hearing her baby cry for the first time and holding her for the first time, not the dandy little fact that she gave birth in a bathtub because she is woman, hear her roar.Films like this do more harm than good, because they use lies, cheap scare tactics, and guilt trips to get their point across. They demonize doctors and belittle women who choose hospitals, but they never - not once! - actually site statistics and facts. They don't tell you that today, most women who give birth in a hospital are free to walk, be in any position they choose, be in the tub or shower, use doulas, and basically do whatever they want, unless there is an emergency. They glorify Europe's "wonderful" system but don't tell you that its high percentage of midwife births is due to COSTS, not CHOICE. They don't give you statistics on what happens if something does go wrong with a home birth.Should women like me feel less than women and worse mothers for DARING to go the route we chose? This is certainly how this movie comes across. And it is beyond offensive for me to hear some "expert" who's never given birth (and never will, due to being a man) sit there and philosophize about how a woman who's had a C-section or pitocin, QUOTE/UNQUOTE, doesn't care about the child because she doesn't receive that cocktail of love hormones released into the body during normal birth. He even goes as far as to imply that hospital births are the reason our society is failing. Really? Boy, they sure had a great big utopia 200 years ago! Bottom line: birth is a very personal thing. Every responsible, caring woman wants what's best for her child. There's something seriously wrong with people who think birthing your baby in a tub somehow makes you a better mom. Shame on Ricky Lake & Co for making this biased, fanatical rubbish.

I watched this dreck after I had my own child and I'm SO glad I didn't watch it beforehand. I would never, EVER recommend it for a mother-to-be. I mean, come on, it's RICKI LAKE. It's not like it's a real documentary. It's biased beyond all rationality and the whole reason for its being was that Lake herself was brainwashed into grieving over some fulfilling birth process she didn't get. Gee, think she's going to be balanced and fair? Maybe by Fox News's definition, but not any other.In short: I'm sick of midwives being portrayed as being incredible medical experts when they simply aren't. At least if a doctor screws up, I can sue him for malpractice. S/he knows it and I know it. If nothing else, I'd think that would serve to keep a doctor on his/her toes, especially with malpractice rates being what they are. What option do I have with a midwife? Have her say she's sorry when she screws up and kills my child (or me?) I had contact with THREE midwives during my own pregnancy, and the advice of ANY of them would have resulted not only in my child's death, but in mine as well. All three of them pooh-poohed my several miscarriages and my advanced age, insisted I'd do just fine at home, shrugged off my preeclampsia and rising blood pressure.Fortunately, I ignored all three of these so-called experts and took my doctor's advice. As a result, my baby got an extra month of growth, even though she did have to be taken two months early, and most importantly, because I was in a hospital, where I could be monitored, we quickly realized that the baby's heartbeat was being affected every time I had a contraction. Had I insisted upon my 'natural' delivery instead of having an emergency c-section, my daughter would have been born dead and I probably would have hemorrhaged to death...because the placenta was partially separated. NOT something a midwife at home could EVER have handled!!Obviously, chalk ME down as someone who isn't going to be giving any credit to midwives and their 'birth is oh-so-natural' garbage. Sure, it's natural, and in its natural state, it kills a lot of women and infants. How natural do we really want to be? I'm not denying some of the accusations directed at the medical industry, and I certainly don't have a problem taking on insurance. However, is there really a difference between the doctors who want to deliver in a timely fashion and the midwives who out and out lie to their patients and tell them that birth is natural and there's no danger? Well, I guess there is one: The midwife will be far more likely to kill the mother and the patient.Which is how I arrive at the crux of my problem with this documentary and other natural-everything brainwashing like it. What's important in the birth process is NOT how 'natural' the mother feels the experience is, or, in fact, HER 'experience' at all. The one and ONLY important thing in a birth is that the mother and child come through it alive and healthy. However, what I'm seeing because of this documentary and other garbage like it is that women are ignoring danger signs and warning signals because they think 'natural' equals 'less danger', or because they're so selfish they don't even consider the needs of the baby, only their own emotional ones. I've even seen some women say they'll turn down a c-section, even an emergency one, because they're convinced by this crowd that they're being poor mothers if they do! That's just insane. Lake is doing her best to promote this ill-advised and downright stupid point of view. If Lake wanted to put time and effort into something, she should have done something which assured women that *every* birth experience is worth valuing, not try to place worth and weight on how they've given birth. If they did what was necessary to end up with a living, healthy child, they did something right. As for me, I had an emergency c-section, and you know what? I consider it a totally rewarding birth experience. I don't think I missed out on a thing by not having to hurt and sweat through hours of agonizing labor, and I really, really don't think I missed out on what would have happened had I gone through the natural process -- a dead baby.As it turns out, the sweetest sound I ever heard was my daughter's first cry, and I'm more grateful than I can say to the doctor who saved us both. And I say that as someone who is, by and large, extremely skeptical of doctors and who lost her own mother to malpractice.And news flash, people: birth hurts even when it's done oh-so-naturally. I notice several of the reviewers either don't have children or are male, so they really can't comment on the accuracy. 'Thought birth in a hospital didn't hurt'...oh, please!