The Business of Being Born and the readings did a great job of convincing me of the benefits of home birth. Before seeing the film and doing the reading, the idea of home births seemed bizarre and weird. Why not go to a hospital and trust in doctors who are trained and prepared to take care of you and any complications? The whole idea of birth is simply terrifying and to know how under qualified doctors are, never having witnessed a birth is even more terrifying. Why are doctors unaware of the ease of squatting and moving around; that laying down with your legs in the stirrups causes more difficulties in delivering? Looking back on experiences where family members and friends who have had children, women who refuse epidurals and have certain requests during delivery are often ignored. It has always seemed like an assembly line like process, where there is a set system where deviations from this system are frowned upon. Women should be in control of their bodies and know what is happening, more advocacy on home births is key. Or more public knowledge on the drugs and procedures taken during a delivery that the mother might not know about or consent to. Like the blog post for this week stated, women’s bodies are sought to be controlled with matters like birth control and delivering children and women need to take this control back. According to Occupy Uterus the baby decides when to be born and drugs given to mothers to induce contractions take away the natural process. The baby will be born when it so desires and that conflicts with the medical system concerning induced contractions and cesarean sections. There were a few questions raised for me by the film. I would like to know how long a home birth takes on average because the movie seemed to portray home births as the baby just popping out within a short time span while hospital births, it seems, take a long time. I also wonder about unforeseen complications that can occur and emergency procedures that need to take place when a child is born. How do mid wives handle these things, getting to the back up plan may take too long when something severe is happening, right? I think the documentary had a biased view towards home births making them seem more peaceful and transcendent than they really are, but that might be my phobia of all things pregnancy speaking. However, I am overall convinced they are better for mother and child. For my role as searcher I found a blog post that could be of interest on Chambanamoms.com. The writer found a mid wife on the black market, which is bizarre and interesting, and explains the benefits of mid wives and the plan of action in getting mid wife practice legalized in Illinois.
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