The Business of Being Born.

Last night I got to attend a screening of a new documentary film produced by Ricki Lake called "The Business of Being Born". The film was about the state of maternity care in the United States with the assertion that it's basically in a state of crisis. Did you know that the current C-Section rate in the US is 33%? That the time of day most C-Sections are performed are statistically 4pm and 10pm? Or that the U.S. has the 2nd highest newborn death rate in the developed world? All of this begs the question... Why?

People forget that hospitals are generally meant to treat illness and that pregnancy and childbirth is not an illness. Don't get me wrong - there are definitely times when a labor will have complications that need to be addressed in a hospital setting. But, on a healthy, normal pregnancy, the percentages of interventions are way out of whack in our country. I've been to a lot of births and the snowball effect of augumentation drugs like pitocin is an all too often occurrance. In a lot of cases, people make decisions about the birth of their child on less information than they would have when they purchase a vehicle. I'm hopeful that this documentary will help encourage moms and dads to find out more information when it comes to the choices they will be presented with in childbirth and that it might open some eyes to a multitude of issues in maternity care in our country.

The film wasn't perfect by any means, but overall it was well done and I believe well intentioned. I've seen a lot of birth videos and I'm excited about this one because it's one of the first main stream films to be produced by someone already in Hollywood and to be shown in public theaters. It is scheduled to be release in January and will be available on Netflix shortly thereafter. Until then, check out this trailer on The Business of Being Born website - http://thebusinessofbeingborn.com/trailer.htm.