A few days ago, on my flight to L.A., I finally got to watch Ricki Lake’s documentary “The business of being born”, while my baby girl was sleeping next to me. I burst into happy tears every 10 minutes and covered my mouth in shock every 5.
The documentary confirmed what I knew all along. In today’s time, women are being robbed of the opportunity to experience birth as a natural and beautiful experience.
There is the so-called “Designer Birth” which is very popular only in the U.S., where a woman can schedule a C-section that would fit into her schedule. The United States has the second worst newborn death rate in the developed world!! Everywhere in the world midwives are attending 70-80% of births, the U.S. stands alone at under 1%!
Both of my babies were born in a hospital and I am thankful to have had good healthy deliveries. Even though I went to visit birthing centers before my first baby was born, I didn’t really know what to expect. But with my second pregnancy, I knew I wanted something different. It wouldn’t mean delivering my baby in the woods, but I didn’t want to have pain medications and certainly didn’t want to be strapped to the hospital bed. The hospital setting could not support my desires. They are not set up to support it. They have no time for it.
The fact is, that the birthing business in the United States is in crisis.
At the end of the day, each woman should choose how she wants to give birth, whether it’s with a midwife or in the hospital, but we all should be correctly informed about the options.
People spend more time doing research when buying cars or even cameras than on the way they want to deliver their babies.
Watch this documentary, it is eye opening and necessary to know.

Happy Labor day!