Thesis: Natural vs. Normal birth, how most expectations of the "normal" way of birth are wrong
Examples: BOBB, youtube videos, "Sphincter Law," "C-section rate rises" article, Shira's birth experience, and Plaza's birth experience.

The film "Business of Being Born," is a very revealing one. It lets viewers in on the differences between home births and hospital births. For me the film was to raise awareness about the problems with hospital births and where it all began. Going back to the bible where Eve bit the apple and that's why women suffer during birth. Because people believed this, feminists were against suffering during child birth which lead to upcoming techniques and technologies such as machines, vaccums, foreceps, epidurals, episiotomies, and of course, C-sections which many doctors turn to when faced any problem whether it is a serious one or not making the OB's life less complicated.

Then the uprising of the home births came back in the 70's when rebels and hippies were against everything that was going on in America at the time so they avoided hospital births and started getting midwives to give birth in their own home. A small percentage of people in America give birth at home whereas, in Europe and Japan it is normal for women to have midwives and their death rate for women and children is much lower than America's because of the way American doctors operate, because they are doctors, they are trained to find something wrong and fix it, so if there is something wrong even if it is supposed to go wrong during the process of birth, they consider it a problem and resort to c-section. I think this is an important film that Americans should watch so they understand the flaws behind those blue curtains and while halls. We've come up to believe that doctors and hospitals are safe places for us citizens but now the way I see it, they are being paid to get me fixed so they will do it in the most convenient way possible for them even if it is inconvenient for the patient. I have been convinced by this film that midwives care much more for the patient than doctors and I personally would trust them more.


As we see in the media in America today, most if not all births take place in a hospital where there is a doctor in charge delivering the birth. The question is, whether the doctor being in charge is a problem or not. Based on youtube vidoes of a giraffe giving birth, a dolphin giviing birth, Ina May Gaskin talking about birth, and an interview with Gaskin about being a mid-wife, a Monty Python youtube video, and an article about c-sections, we can conclude that the Doctor's being in charge during child birth is a problem affecting the woman's body and the child's first moments alive.

In the case of a natural child birth such as the dolphin's or giraffe's, no meds were necessary. Once the calf was born, they would learn to swim/stand up with their mother by their side. Contrasting with a normal child birth in America where the doctors are in control of the birth and does not allow the woman's body or the woman's baby to act as it naturally should. The doctors give the woman an episiotomy when, according to Gaskin, the cervix does not need to be mangled with because it acts as a spincter, allowing to open and close as necessary. Gaskin also mentioned that sphincters are "shy" when the woman is disturbed during child birth the sphincter will close up. So when people are walking in and out of the room, and there are bright lights focusing on the woman, it is harder for the woman to feel comfortable pushing the baby out, which is where the meds come in. The doctors make the experience for the woman artificial and it affects the woman's body.

And once the child is born, as shown in the Monty Python youtube video, he/she is taken away from the mother. Because the child is taken away from the mother right away, it takes away that mother vs. child connection that they have at child birth. For example with the dolphin giving birth, naturally, once the calf is born, the two swam together side by side. And the doctors take away that connection. Similar to a woman that I know gave birth twice, once in another country and once in America, in the other country, after giving birth she was able to hold her child and her experience of holding her baby just after her child was born was one she enjoyed. And unlike how the American way of birth is, she was able to take care of her child in the hospital with the child lying next to her. She did not get that experience with her second child, to whom she gave birth in America, because the doctors took away the child once they were born. Not only is the doctors being in charge during child birth a problem because it doesn't allow the woman to listen to her body and naturally give birth but it also takes away the experience for a mother to connect with her child.

Finally, because the doctor is getting paid to do what he/she is doing, they will plan to do it the way they want it. What they are doing is a form of commodity, they have to do what they have to do in a certain amount of time, the doctors make sure the baby is born at a certain time by using techniques and technologies that are not necesarily good for the patient but efficient and convenient for the doctor. Which means that if it is convenient for them to do a c-section, when it is not even completely necessary for them to, rather than risk something going wrong during child labor and being blamed for it, they'll do it.(Rubin). When the doctor's in charge, it is a problem because most of the medical procedures performed are in favor of the doctor's comfort and convenience.

With the doctor in charge, it is a problem because the doctor in control is the main difference between a natural and normal birth when contrasting the youtube videos of a giraffe's birth and a dolphin's, the interview and talk with Ina May gaskin with the youtube video of Monty Python's youtube video about birth and Rita Rubin's article about C-sections. Although Americans see birth at the hospital in the media, it is not always the best decision for the woman. The doctor being in charge is a problem when a woman is trying to give birth naturally.


Notes From 3/3-3/6/09:
Plaza's birth experience proved that the doctor is not always going to make you feel safe and secure in a hospital because in her case she had to deal with the intern who made her feel like she didn't know what she was doing. And the doctor did not arrive until much later but just in time to deliver the baby, her experience was impersonal and she was irritated for part of the time because of the way she was being treated at the hospital.

Shira's birth experience proves that you don't need a doctor to have a happy and natural birth, in her second birth, at home, she said that it was very simple and she didn't need to be taken care of by a doctor.

In Ina May Gaskin's article, "Sphincter Law," she explains how the sphincter cannot be opened on command, so when the doctor is forcing the woman to push when her body is not ready, they need to come in and do an episiotomy to be time efficient. Gaskin also explains how sphincers may suddenly close when their owner is startled, frightened, subconscious, on uncomforable, so if the doctor is making the woman uncomfortable or another aspect of the "normal" way of birth, the sphincter will want to close. Controlling the sphincter is a mind-body connection where if the woman is relaxed, her sphincter is more likely to open up more easily whereas, if she's in a hospital where people are yelling at her to push, its less likely that she will feel comforable and allow her sphincter to open up.