mama's body: "The Business of Being Born"

The Business of Being Born grew out of director Abbie Epstein's connection to The Vagina Monologues actress Ricki Lake. Shocked at the results of her own research into the birth industry, Lake asked Epstein to make a film about childbirth.

The movie reveals how the medical profession excessively and detrimentally intervenes in women's pregnancy and labor. It addresses how many hospital births are motivated more by the hospitals' financial and legal considerations than patients' wishes, or even best interests. The film makes a compelling case for a return to traditional (and often safer) midwife-assisted births.

The film's website states: "Birth is a miracle, a rite of passage, a natural part of life. But birth is also big business. Compelled to explore the subject after the delivery of her first child, actress Ricki Lake recruits filmmaker Abby Epstein to question the way American women have babies.

The film interlaces intimate birth stories with surprising historical, political and scientific insights and shocking statistics about the current maternity care system. When director Epstein discovers she is pregnant during the making of the film, the journey becomes even more personal.

Should most births be viewed as a natural life process, or should every delivery be treated as a potentially catastrophic medical emergency?"

The New York Times called the film "a passionate ground-level examination of home childbirth," and while "not overtly political, ( its) feminism is palpable but unspoken."

One of the issues the movie addresses is the common practice of having the birthing in the “lithotomy” position. This requires the mom to be lying on her back as she is encouraged to “push.” Anatomically, this shifts the pelvis into a narrowe postition, one that increases the chance of a forceps or a vacuum extraction delivery. Historically and anatomically, squatting is much less stressful for the mother although it makes it more difficult for the doctor to catch the baby.

The United States' infant-mortality rate is the second-highest in industrialized countries. “The Business of Being Born” suggests that this is one of the high costs of our blind trust in hospital technology.

"The Business of Being Born" is available from Amazon for under $10