Here is Part 3 regarding the film “The Business of Being Born.” I am including several viewpoints here: from a new dad who wrote an editorial to the SF Chronicle, from a highly respected pediatrician who called into KGO radio while the director and producer were being interviewed and from San Francisco OB/Gyn Dr. Laurie Green.

On Sunday, January 20^th Damon Lisch, who lives with his wife and new son in Albany, CA wrote an insightful and eye opening piece to the SF Chronicle in response to the film “The Business of Being Born”:

• In it he said “Being conscientious educated liberals, and being more than a little nervous, we read all of the literature and made a birthing plan, stocked up on whale music and prepared for our spiritual journey.”
• “My wife’s water broke early…THREE DAYS LATER, my wife gave birth to a healthy boy. My wife was horribly uncomfortable for the first two days, but she bravely refused painkillers and despite the recommendation of the doctors, we refused the “assault on the territory of a woman’s body.” The hospital was totally responsive to our birth plan, despite misgivings. As a result, my wife went through far, far more pain and discomfort than she needed to.
• Our experience convinced me that the ‘alternative birth” movement has caused untold suffering, and I resent it.

Also in January of this year, Dr. Pete Contini, Pediatrician, called into KGO radio to try to respond to the inaccuracies he heard coming from both Abbey Epstein and Ricki Lake…they dismissed him pretty quickly, even though he approached them with respect and a genuine attempt to educate. Some of his points included:

• A 30 hour labor (which Ricki Lake’s was the first time around) warrants medical intervention
• The ensuing infection that developed during her long labor was not the result of vaginal examinations; rather this was the result of the prolonged length of labor and ruptured membranes
• That midwives take care of healthy/low risk women; Obstetrician’s provide care to the mainstream, including high risk OB patients, therefore the cesarean rate will of course be higher among OB’s compared to midwives; in other words, by the time of labor, high risk or complicated patients have already been selected out of the midwife pool, leaving a group of women more likely to have a vaginal delivery.

According to Dr. Laurie Green, it is difficult for patients to distinguish between informational materials offering personal opinions compared with evidence-based advice. Healthy women giving birth before age 23 often have textbook non-interventional births, but as in the case of athletes, age is a risk factor. Women giving birth for the first time after the age of 34 are more likely to have both pregnancy and birth complications, and medical interventions are more likely to be necessary…and lifesaving. All physicians want their patients to have the birth they desire, and to bring to bear years of experience to reach this shared goal. Ironically, physicians and the medical team are more open-minded and flexible than Ms. Lake, who has a narrow view of what a ‘successful’ birth should entail. So what is the right approach? Who do I trust, and what should I do the day I give birth?

This is Part 2 of my response to “The Business of Being Born” movie. In addition to painting an extremely one-sided view of birth, this film delivers some potentially hazardous messages to the world at large-many of whom are undoubtedly expecting babies:

The film’s director, Abbey Epstein, unexpectedly becomes pregnant during the production of the movie-so they incorporate her experience into the film. She too is slated for a homebirth, except that her baby is breech (head is not down, which is necessary for a vaginal delivery.) We meet up with Abbey at home, she is 33 weeks pregnant and is obviously having labor contractions…here is where the movie takes a real downward spiral as the world watches complete mismanagement of a high risk pregnancy:

• Any healthcare professional in the world will attest to the fact that at 33 weeks, with a baby in the breech position, a woman who is showing even remote signs of contractions MUST contact her physician or midwife to be immediately evaluated in the hospital.
• What we see is Abbey in denial, for hours, as she moans and takes baths and begins writhing on the bed; the midwife is eventually summoned to the their apartment, along with Ricki Lake and the film crew! The picture that is painted is that this is NORMAL and to be expected, which it is NOT!
• Hours seem to go by, the decision is made to go to the hospital, and the crew continues filming: in the lobby of their apartment- catching Abbey as she drops to her knees in pain, as she begs the cab driver to please hurry to get her to the hospital…as if all of this is OK-which it is NOT!
• This part of the film is highly irresponsible if not downright dangerous. Laypeople around the world are being influenced by amateurs delivering a message that, in the process of trying to make a radical point, could instead cause harm.
• The aftermath of Abbey Epstein’s cesarean section is judgmental at best. During a postpartum interview with Abbey, she is apologetic for her birth, the way it went, as if she could control it! The opportunity for her to rejoice about the healthy baby in her arms is missed completely, instead, she sounds disappointed.
• The crowning glory is at the very end of the film, when Abbey Epstein and Ricki Lake are sitting on the floor with Abbey’s now older baby who is cruising around on his hands and knees. Their conversation is reflective about the process of the film, while continuing to paint an apologetic picture of Abbey’s labor and delivery. The impression given is that Ricki Lake is pitying Abbey for “missing out” on being a real woman-because the hospital took over.

Right- they took over by providing a safe and controlled environment to deliver a healthy (premature) baby into the arms of the parents!

Ricki Lake’s movie “The Business of Being Born” in a word is unrealistic. I have watched the movie, listened to interviews and read the many articles discussing this film; while what she has to say is intriguing-she is way off base. I have no need to criticize or make her wrong; I do on the other hand want to point out some of the misinformation that can influence expectant parents.

• Ricki Lake, an actress and lay person, decided to become an “expert” in labor and delivery after the birth of her first son. The birth was typical for a first delivery: LONG. With a lengthy labor and the bag of waters broken for a long time, often necessitates the need for hospital technology to get involved. She may have hoped for a less invasive birth experience (lot’s of us do.) The reality is that after a certain amount of time, the mom, the uterus and the baby all become stressed, and it becomes appropriate and necessary for high-tech intervention. Ricki chooses to be mad at the hospital and the healthcare professionals rather than look at the facts.
• So, when Ricki is expecting her second son, she decides to utilize her newfound “expertise” regarding all matters birth and finds a midwife to deliver her baby at home. (To their credit, the film director actually shows some of the midwife’s own labor, where we see under no uncertain terms how absolutely hair raising the pain of labor can be.) What is never highlighted is the well known fact that second babies are almost guaranteed to arrive in the world in half the time that it took the first baby to be born: ”the way has been paved” so to speak. I credit Ricki for her determination to deliver at home to prove her point, and while it is no picnic to be sure, she ultimately accomplishes her goal…in much, much less time that the first baby. Question: if Ricki had tried to do this birth at home with the first baby, would it have happened? I doubt it.
• I also ask WHERE was her partner in any of this? First birth or second? We NEVER see him. My point in asking is that I feel strongly that partners have a significant place in labor, an opportunity to contribute in a way that is likely to positively affect not only the birth experience, but the rest of their lives…

These are just some of my initial thoughts…stay tuned for another entry when I discuss premature babies and how that was depicted in the film.

This is a message to you sweet Brady, to tell you that you are adored by your parents…I met them before you were born. Your Mom signed up to take McMoyler Method classes and dragged your dad along…the good news is that he really “got” how important he was to the process and literally cheered your mom to the finish line as she pushed you into the world…they shared this story with a class of expectant parents and you could have heard a pin drop.

Your mom sent me a photo of your dad hugging you to his chest; his eyes were closed as he swayed side to side and squeezed you (gently) to his chest…there are not words to describe the love of ones baby-the photo said it all.

He recently sent me an email that said “my baby is growing up.” Dad’s have a profound love for their children, particularly when they are invited in…I mean, included on every level to care for, provide, love and comfort their babies. This is not “women’s work.” Men have the capacity to do what mom’s do-they just need to know they are essential to the parenting…