Review of The Business of Being Born (2008) by Emily B — 11 Nov 2007

EVERYONE (women especially) need to see this movie. After the birth of my own son, and with my wife's experiences working at a hospital (and studying to be a midwife), I couldn't think of a more important topic to explore.

This film explores the fact that our society has scared women into thinking that they NEED to give birth in a hospital and they NEED the drugs that they try to push on them. While I hear stories from my wife on a daily basis, it really is an eye-opening documentary about how hospitals (and I'm sure there are a COUPLE of exceptions) are not operating in the woman or her baby's best interests.

..but they are operating from a business and a convenience standpoint. My favorite line of the movie was that someone pointed out (I'm paraphrasing) that most people will do extensive research when they buy a stereo, a car, things like that.

...but they often do very little research when it comes to their birth experience. My only complaint is that the movie doesn't really mention birth centers as an option (which is what we used for Owen), but my wife pointed out that birth centers are not very common nationwide, so they probably aren't an option for many women.

And I thought this would have been an excellent forum to talk about the importance of breastfeeding and how its not very encouraged in hospitals (and in general), but that's probably a documentary in and of itself.