Reflection #1

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Reflection #1 Reflection #1 Movie: The Business of Being Born by Abby Epstein Vanshika Singh Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia FMST 312: Parent-Child Relationships Dr. Rafael Wainer August 11, 2023 1 Word Count: 397

Reflection #1 The Business of Being Born examines the American childbirth process, which frequently entails hospital interventions. The film contends that the medicalization of childbirth has resulted in a disconnection between women and their birthing experiences, and that many standard hospital practices may not be in the best interest of the mother and her infant. The documentary includes the perspectives of expectant mothers, midwives, obstetricians, and maternity educators. We learn that at the moment, expecting mothers have various options available for childbirth, the most common ones being vaginal birth (with or without the use of drugs), caesarean birth, and designer birth (Cartwright & The Embryo Project, 2018). The medicalization of childbirth begins early on and extends to immediate postpartum care. It includes prenatal care, hospital birth (if desired), induction (if required), continuous maternal and fetal monitoring, pain management and medical interventions. The film demonstrates that initially physicians desired for women to give birth in hospital instead of at their home because obstetrics and gynaecology were expanding fields and it brought in a lot of business for the hospitals (Cartwright & The Embryo Project, 2018). Many countries, including the United Kingdom, France and Australia, continue to have midwives present at 70-80% births, while the United States does not (Cartwright & The Embryo Project, 2018). Epstein (2008) talks about how in these nations, doctors only intervene in the small proportion of births that have complications like excessive vaginal bleeding, protracted labour, uterine rupture, etc. It is important to note that the cost of childbirth in the United States is double that of any other country (Epstein, 2008). In addition to that, countries that spend one-third the amount as the United States have lower maternal and fetal mortality rates. Physicians and researchers at Boston University believe that the high infant mortality rate in the US is due to the poor health of the women in the country and the resulting complications during childbirth; the US has the highest infant mortality rate among the seven countries with more than 2 Word Count: 397

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