BLOGJune2009 019

BLOGBanner240x400

"When my friend Ricki Lake approached me about making this film, I admitted to her that I was afraid to even witness a woman giving birth, let alone film one." -quote from the Director of The Business of Being Born Abby Epstein 2007

BLOGRickiAbby

-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. -synopsis of The Business of Being Born movie

My Husband and I recently watched the movie on Netflix and were really floored to learn that many women and men have never seen an actual normal birth or have never even heard of a midwife. Much like the director of the film and other voices from the film share, there seems to be a big taboo about talking about birth and definitely a serious push to keep women from asking questions.

After giving birth to our third child at home this summer I felt compelled to share about the art of Natural childbirth and our own home birth experience. My natural childbirths came about from the first hand experience of being with my mom, Gerri Plummer, as she gave birth at home, and definitely the overwhelming frustration from a hospital birth with our first. Her midwife was Brenda Buffington TLM who actually delivered me as a baby and mentored me through my first pregnancy, eventually also delivering my son at home in 2005. By this June 2009, Jackie Griggs RN, CNM, IBCLC brought our little daughter into the world.

The reason I chose home birth is I wanted to be in control over my own body. I also wanted to experience a calm and relaxed atmosphere that would help me to stay focused on my own timing, my own breathing. I didn’t want to sit under a loud ticking clock and be harassed into speeding up my labour which actually transpired with our first. I had back labor the first time and it went for 36 hours, they wouldn’t allow me to get in the hot tub, they wouldn’t allow me to have any ice or heat for the back pain, every time I had a contraction they had to watch me which caused more discomfort. Almost everything we had talked to our doctor about and didn’t want done was done to me to speed up labor.

For the second birth with my son in 2005 I chose to use an exercise ball for early labor, a warm bath, and the Side Lying position for birth.

baby david 014

First Home Birth
baby david 007

Midwife Brenda Buffington
baby david 031

With my daughter’s birth this June we had labor through the night so to relax I brushed my hair which actually was very soothing, laid on my side during contractions and to my surprise the most comfortable feeling for my back was the Hands and Knees Position.

Second Home Birth
June20th2009 009

Getting Footprints!
June20th2009 036

Aug31st2009 012

After watching the film I wondered why another mom I know had chosen to have a natural birth. So I asked her "What was the main factor you chose to have a natural birth? "

"I could write a book! Natural is a choice! A great choice for the mom and baby. A mom told me that man came up with drugs to take away the most amazing experience a woman could feel, the power, the intensity, the joy, she got me soooo curious I did tons of research. I did it for the baby not for me. If I was getting my leg cut off I would choose drugs as it affects no one but me, but with birth, event thought they say drugs safe, always a chance, always a chance that thing stuck in your back could hurt you, turn and hurt you and that could prevent you caring for baby properly. Too many women I talked to loved the epidural but still had some pain at sight years later, not every day but occassionally. Not worth it.

Sure it hurts but its empowering. You get to feel your baby, you get to make those pushes work. You get to know when baby is coming. You get to get up and move around. Your up the next day with no cords. I loved it! I did have births at hospital but NO medication. PLUS if its your 2/3rd birth you can get permission to not have all those ivs/hookups. I got the permission for my 3rd but unfortunately We had some complications so it was important to monitor him. But I still had freedom to do what I wanted.

Get those birthplans made and make copies of it, take it to hospital. Interview Hospitals/Drs to make sure they will support your birth decision. I LOVED my 2nd Dr soooo much. He told me I will tell ya once if you need it ask but wont ask again due to what we talked about (good southern man)." -Alisa Copeland

I was also curious to find out why the midwives I have known had chosen their profession. So I asked them "What was the main reason you became a midwife?"

"When you asked me to write a few words about my calling to midwifery, it made me think. What can I tell you about this, what can I say to express the feeling I have for this wonderful thing that God has given me?
My journey to midwifery began with my faith in the nature and order that God has built into his creation. The female body is perfectly fashioned to give birth and the mechanism works if we allow it to. I had three hospital births before I decided that it was not the way birth was meant to be accomplished. My labors were manipulated. I was patronized, pitted, and lied to. I was given episiotomies, I.V.s, and patted on the head. I was told how to behave. I felt violated. I vowed that I would never have another hospital birth.
I began to explore what a midwife does, and the light went on in my head. I could do that for women! I knew what they were feeling, thinking, and how important it was to acknowledge their wishes for how the birth would go. I devoured every book I could get my hands on and joined a midwife training program. I went on births and met some wonderful women who helped me learn. I went to conferences and workshops. I had my own first home birth and then it all fell into place for me. Through these thirty years, I have never stopped learning from the beautiful ladies who have been my clients. I have a profound respect for pregnant women." -Brenda Buffington TLM
"The main reason I became a midwife is because I worked at a hospital and our c-section rate was 25%. That seems low now, but at the time, it seemed terrible to me and I did not want to be involved with that whole situation.
I wanted to be part of the solution, not the problem. In my work at the hospital, I was the one who admitted moms and put them in bed on a monitor. I also was the one who took them to the OR and helped with the surgery, and then I was the one who took the baby from the OR
to the nursery. I knew in my heart it was wrong to take babies from moms and I knew many of the c-sections we were doing were totally unnecessary.
The hospital where I worked was not supportive of breastfeeding. I tried for awhile to change the policies, but I could see they were not really interested in changing. I wanted to help women give birth without surgery and breastfeed and that is the main reason I became a midwife." -Jackie Griggs RN, CNM, IBCLC
June20th2009 065