The Business of Being Born

So I watched the documentary The Business of Being Born yesterday.  I'd seen a good bit of it before, but never watched the whole thing all the way through.  I remember when it first came out in 2008 and being really interested in watching it.  Of course, it wasn't really relevant to me at the time, so I never made a point to watch it.  I have always been interested in babies and birthing, and watched all the shows on TLC and Discovery Channel about them.  I remember being younger and wondering why so many women were being induced, then being on Pitocin, then having births that more often than not resulted in C-Sections.  This was long before the documentary even came out that I noticed this.  I knew back then that I did not want any intervention, unless my child or myself it was a life-threatening situation.  It seemed like for a while, every woman was having a C-section and I didn't understand why.  I know that C-sections became very popular amongst celebrities and from what I've heard, many of them had them out of convenience.  I know for a fact that Christina Aguilera had one simply because she said she did not want to rip and was uncomfortable with not knowing how child birth would affect her other 'lady-parts'.  Personally, I would not get pregnant and not want to experience a natural/vaginal childbirth if I have the choice.  It beyond me as to why someone would get pregnant and not think of how the child would come, if a C-section was not an option.  Anyways, there could have been other extenuating circumstances, but I only know what I heard her say in an interview.  I'm sure many celebrities make it appear as if they had elective C-sections, when in actuality they had circumstances that required them to have them.  Nonetheless, I'm not here to put anyone down, because I do not know how my own birthing experience will turn out.  I can say now, that I hope to God that I am able to deliver vaginally with no complications, but I'm sorely focused on getting my child here safe at the end of the day.  The documentary itself was very informative, but a little biased naturally.  I wouldn't expect a documentary about mid-wifery and natural childbirth to promote intervening medical procedures when it comes to child birthing.

In the practice I go to, I don’t even see the OB/GYN.  The only patients that see her are high-risk ones.  I work solely with a PA and she told me that most likely a mid-wife will deliver me, although an OB/GYN who is on-call at the hospital might also do it.  She told me that mid-wives offer a better birthing experience, because they are less likely to intervene and there is a more relaxed vibe in dealing with them.  For that reason alone, I would like to work with a mid-wife.  This is my first child and I want to have as good of a relaxed birthing experience as possible.  I don't want a lot of individuals telling what to do and trying to drug me up on medicine.  I would like to go as natural as I can handle when it comes to child birth, although this does not mean that I am not open to pain medicine if need be or even an epidural. 

There is also a second documentary called "More Business of Being Born", which is four episodes that expand on topics that were both discussed and not discussed in the original documentary.  I have not yet finished the first episode, and still need to watch the other three.  They did discuss in the first episode the effects that ultrasound could have on babies in utero and the possible connection they could have to autism.  I did some additional reading and there do seem to be several articles questioning the effects of the technology.  Of course, as with anything, you have to take precautions and use in moderation.  Any type of procedure that uses technology such as ultrasound, should be limited in use in general, no matter pregnant or not.  The same can be said for x-ray and other types of scans.  I'm not a huge science buff, but I only imagine that any over exposure to these types of things cannot be good.  The women in the documentary spoke of how Autism is not present in the Amish community and other countries who do not use ultrasound technology have lower autism of it as well.  I'm sure there is a lot of room for debate, since Autism is a very controversial topic amongst the health community right now.  Autism has been linked to many causes, to include both genetic and environmental.  I know very little about the condition, so I won't speak on anything outside of what I know.

I will definitely be watching the remainder of the documentary, because I am interested in what other things the discuss regarding child birth.  I feel as if you can never have enough information, especially while being pregnant.  Pregnant women should be aware of all of their options and resources available to them and their child.  I will most likely do a follow-up post once I'm done watching and let you all know what I think.

Until next time...Happy bumping!

xxoo,

Tenns