Being Born in the Media: Dangerous Messages

This is Part 2 of my response to “The Business of Being Born” movie. In addition to painting an extremely one-sided view of birth, this film delivers some potentially hazardous messages to the world at large-many of whom are undoubtedly expecting babies:

The film’s director, Abbey Epstein, unexpectedly becomes pregnant during the production of the movie-so they incorporate her experience into the film. She too is slated for a homebirth, except that her baby is breech (head is not down, which is necessary for a vaginal delivery.) We meet up with Abbey at home, she is 33 weeks pregnant and is obviously having labor contractions…here is where the movie takes a real downward spiral as the world watches complete mismanagement of a high risk pregnancy:

• Any healthcare professional in the world will attest to the fact that at 33 weeks, with a baby in the breech position, a woman who is showing even remote signs of contractions MUST contact her physician or midwife to be immediately evaluated in the hospital.
• What we see is Abbey in denial, for hours, as she moans and takes baths and begins writhing on the bed; the midwife is eventually summoned to the their apartment, along with Ricki Lake and the film crew! The picture that is painted is that this is NORMAL and to be expected, which it is NOT!
• Hours seem to go by, the decision is made to go to the hospital, and the crew continues filming: in the lobby of their apartment- catching Abbey as she drops to her knees in pain, as she begs the cab driver to please hurry to get her to the hospital…as if all of this is OK-which it is NOT!
• This part of the film is highly irresponsible if not downright dangerous. Laypeople around the world are being influenced by amateurs delivering a message that, in the process of trying to make a radical point, could instead cause harm.
• The aftermath of Abbey Epstein’s cesarean section is judgmental at best. During a postpartum interview with Abbey, she is apologetic for her birth, the way it went, as if she could control it! The opportunity for her to rejoice about the healthy baby in her arms is missed completely, instead, she sounds disappointed.
• The crowning glory is at the very end of the film, when Abbey Epstein and Ricki Lake are sitting on the floor with Abbey’s now older baby who is cruising around on his hands and knees. Their conversation is reflective about the process of the film, while continuing to paint an apologetic picture of Abbey’s labor and delivery. The impression given is that Ricki Lake is pitying Abbey for “missing out” on being a real woman-because the hospital took over.

Right– they took over by providing a safe and controlled environment to deliver a healthy (premature) baby into the arms of the parents!