Add this movie to the list of things NOT TO WATCH when yet again you are bleeding to death (signifying how NOT PREGNANT YOU ARE!) and trying to decide if you should go to the emergency room or not. I know TMI... I have endometriosis - it's not pretty. I have actually seen this before, just after it came out. But The Business of Being Born has been on The Movie Channel again recently and I just couldn't resist.
Because of some of the complications I had during my pregnancy such as preeclampsia and gestational diabetes, a natural birth was just not possible. In my case, induction saved the life of my baby and my own. But even then I saw how those interventions actually hindered the process. The induction required 24 hours with a folley catheter, which did begin dialation and contractions. But nothing was going to happen with out pitocin. The problem is the more pitocin I was given the stronger the contractions and the less chance I could deal with them without stadol and eventually an epidural. And of course the pain meds caused me to need more pitocin. I became totally suspicious that they were just pretending to give me pain meds and lying about it (later I found out this was a side effect of the stadol, feel like everyone is against you). Oh and then there was the bunny breathing and cookie oven hallucinations.
After 24 hours of this I was finally prepped for a c-section. At this point I didn't care, just get the baby out. I would do whatever they said I should... and remember because of the preeclampsia who I was to question anything they told me I needed to do. And if it weren't for another patient across the hall, also named Wendy, who decided to give birth before her doctor could arrive, I would have been taken straight to the O.R. But somehow my symptoms normalized again and stayed that way for a few hours. Long enough for my body to finally catch up with all the meds and give birth.
There were still a few more hurdles to go through as Awsumb was born with no heartbeat, no muscle tone, not breathing and an Apgar score of 0. But when all that was finally worked out I had a healthy baby boy. Although the birth wasn't natural, I was so thankful that at least I didn't have to have any further complictions from a c-section to interfere with normal attachment, bonding and even breastfeeding issues.
The more you learn about natural childbith the more you realize how totally amazing our design is. The hormones released to help mother a cope with and forget the pain, and to bond with her baby are just amazing. I don't know how our society began to see pregnancy as a condition that needs to be cured instead of a natural process. No wonder so many women have trouble with attachment, breastfeeding, and depression after giving birth.
And I haven't even mentioned the costs involved. You would think in a time when cost of healthcare is such a topic that people would realize this is one area that we could really save money if we really waited to intervene until absolutely necessary.
However you gave birth, whatever your complications, you and a couple girlfriends will love watching this documentary and will be able to relate to these filmakers as they tell their stories. If anything just to remember how sweet to hold that little baby of yours for the first time!
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