Business Of Being Born

Giving birth to a baby is the most amazing and miraculous experiences for parents and their loved ones. Every woman’s birth story is different and full of joy. Furthermore, the process from the moment a woman knows that she’s pregnant to being in the delivering room is very critical to both her and the newborn baby. Prenatal care is extremely important and it can impact greatly the quality of life of the baby. In this paper, the topic of giving birth will be discussed thoroughly by describing the stories of two mothers who gave birth in different decades and see how their prenatal cares are different from each other with correlation of the advancement of modern medicine between four decades.

Joseph, I tend to agree with you that pregnancy and childbirth in the United States is linked to big social issues. It seems to me fear of safety has been put in the minds of expecting parents and this fear makes them doubt nature and their own body’s way of delivering a baby. The Business of Being Born documentary was also an eye opener for me. I had no idea what Twilight sleep did to women in the past. I wonder, will our grandchildren look back on the way we deliver babies today and question what we were even thinking? Will they see the practices today and think we were barbaric? It seems to me we have taken a few steps backward, when it comes to pregnancy and childbirth, even though technology has moved forward.

The first problem that needs to be addressed is simply the lack of access for women in vulnerable populations to prenatal care. This is a major problem because we see that the rate of women who

Childbirth is one of the greatest privileges on the earth anyone could have and we, as women, should feel proud to be major contributors for it. Thus, a mother has to play a key role in aiding the healthcare workers to mitigate the health crisis associated with childbirth by performing her duties faithfully. One such associated health crisis is “Premature (preterm) birth” which occurs when the baby is born too early, before 37 weeks of gestational period (CDC, 2015). The rate of preterm birth ranges from 5% to 18% of babies born across 184 countries (WHO, 2015).

This film, “More Business of Being Born, Episode 3: Explore your Options: Doulas, Birth Centers, and C-Sections,” was a spinoff of a movie that was made. This documentary goes further in depth than the movie and allows women to acquire an enhanced understanding of child birth. There are numerous women throughout this episode sharing their real life experiences. Ricki Lake, the executive producer, stated, “We are not experts because we are not doctors or midwives even. We are not telling people what to do, we are simply showing.” That is exactly what they ensure during this film.

Maternal mortality represents more than the loss of lives for individual women, as it also reflects the larger value and prioritization of women 's health and threatens the health and survival of families, young children, and even the communities in which they live (Royston and Armstrong, 1989). Maternal mortality is unacceptably high (WHO, 2015b). Globally, approximately 830 women die every day from pregnancy- or childbirth-related complications (ibid.). The causes of maternal mortality are predominately preventable and can be classified into three fundamental causes: (1) medical - consisting of direct medical problems and pre-existent/coexistent medical problems that are aggravated by pregnancy, (2) underlying - social and legal conditions, and (3) health systems laws and policies that address availability, accessibility, and quality of reproductive health services (PHP et al, 2011).

However, Ricki Lane, the producer of the film, “The Business of being Born,” hopes that viewers will see that economically, births out of hospitals and at home is cheaper with a midwife, who will charge their patients only $4,000 for everything, including post-natal care. Whilst, a normal vaginal birth can cost up to $13,000, and a birth with multiple drugs involved, which typically leads to C-Section costs up to $35,000. However, with the American Medical association’s relationships with the hospitals and insurances, they are actually discouraging home births and midwifery, when the truth is that, statistically, it is safer and cheaper with home births and midwifes. It kind of makes you wonder just what exactly is on their agenda when it is a common practice to give births at home in both, developing and under developing countries, and has been for hundreds of years.

first watched, "The Business of Being Born" when it came out in 2008.  It was prior to having children and I had just accepted my position as a Nurse Manager the year prior in Obstetrics in a Rural, Level 1 Facility.  (Being Level 1 in Obstetrics means that we only care for low risk mothers and babies that are at least 35 weeks gestation.)  I find it very interesting how my perspective has changed in the 9 years since its release.  Although I am still pro, low-intervention birth, I feel like the enthusiasm I once had for natural birth with limited intervention has been hijacked by an increase in anxiety d/t the fear of medical liability.  A couple of bad home-birth outcomes can do that to you.  On the flip side, and to be fair, we don’t see all of the perfectly healthy and safe home-birth deliveries; because if everything went well, there would be no need to come to the hospital.

The author is a nurse in a level two trauma facility in a community of approximately fifty thousand people in Oregon. The community is a college-town surrounded by a large agricultural area. There is a minimal ethnic diversity within the community. The diversity present occurs mainly from internationally students and faculty from the college. There is a growing population of women who desire low interventional births in the community. The author has worked on the labor and delivery unit of the hospital for the last 14 years. The hospital is the only one in the area to offer trial of labor services to women who have previously undergone a cesarean section. The unit on average experiences around 1000 deliveries annually.

Prenatal care in the United States was not the way is today, there have been some improvements in regards to prenatal care. The number of pregnant women who received prenatal care has increased over the past 75 years (Zolotor and Carlough, 2014). Today, medical providers deliver more integrated services, which includes evidence-based screening, counseling, medical care, and psychosocial support.

The intent of this paper is to examine effective solutions for reducing cesarean deliveries. Cesarean deliveries involve more risk to both the mother and baby than vaginal births do. Cesarean deliveries have a higher potential of complications than vaginal births. Cesarean deliveries cost more, require longer hospital stays, and require more resources—both human and systemic—than vaginal births.

And it's really being spurred by midwives, labor instructors called doulas, forward-thinking doctors, and women who don't want "medical" births but don't necessarily want their babies at home either.

An argument for the case of minimal medicalized intervention during birth can be made in terms of low-risk pregnancies and reserving medical interventions for high-risk deliveries and emergency situations. The purpose of this paper is to ensure that members of the childbearing community, including healthcare professionals, are familiar with alternative interventions to cesarean section and thoroughly consider the risks and benefits of said interventions so that natural child-birthing methods can be promoted in low-risk situations.

Childbirth can be described as one of the most rewarding and also painful experiences in a woman’s life. Most women choose some type of method to ease pain, however, there has been a lot of controversy over with pain management method is the most effective. According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control), In 2013, there were 3,932,181 births recorded in the United States, 32.7% of those births were surgical procedures. In 2012, 1.36% of recorded births occurred out-of-hospital, meaning these births took place mostly in homes or birthing centers. Without the option of medicine that a hospital provides, how were these women able to manage their pain during labor and delivery. There are many different methods for easing pain during childbirth, some methods involve the use of medicine and surgery, and others include natural techniques, such as hypnosis, Lamaze, and many others. It is a personal preference of the parents over which method is right for the needs of the mother and child. This can be an overwhelming decision for new parents to make because they have to take into consideration the safety of the mother and child, pain management for the mother and desire for medical involvement.

Prenatal care is widely accepted as an important element in improving pregnancy outcome. (Gorrie, McKinney, Murray, 1998). Prenatal care is defined as care of a pregnant woman during the time in the maternity cycle that begins with conception and ends with the onset of labor. A medical, surgical, gynecologic, obstretic, social and family history is taken (Mosby's Medical, Nursing, and Allied Health Dictionary, 1998). It is important for a pregnant woman as well as our society to know that everything that you do has an effect on your baby. Because so many women opt not to receive the benefits of prenatal care, our society sees the ramification, which include a variety of complications primarily