The Business of Being Born ?

Question

Has anyone else seen this documentary?! If so, what do you thing about it? Has it changed the way you feel about giving birth?

Answer

yes. it completely changed my views. this is copied from my facebook post. I watched it before I got pregnant. *warning this is insanely long!*M- the nature loving girl in me continues!! I realize that this post goes against everything I've thought before. To be honest, I never really knew any different. Or that there could be a better way. I've done extensive research, and can say that this previously hospital loving, epidural fiend is no more! I've waited to post this for a while. Afraid I might look "crazy" or "here's misty with another hippy post. What's next? Keeping the placenta on until it naturally comes off? " No.  But there are huge reasons to this. I was so ill informed. My eyes are opened and there's no going back. Crazy? Again, like the vr, I realized don't care if it seems crazy. I'm going to experience something magically amazing that God designed and I can't wait. I'll take the experience and seem crazy any day of the week. It started with watching breastfeeding documentaries. I had longed to nurse my kids more, and for one reason or another(I dried up after Landon quickly after they put me on bc) I knew I wanted more. That brought the "golden hour" and "breast crawl" to my attention. The golden hour,  according to research is" Based on decades of evidence, the World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund (World Health Organization & United Nations Children’s Fund, 2009) recommended that all healthy mothers and babies, regardless of feeding preference and method of birth, have uninterrupted skin-to-skin care beginning immediately after birth for at least an hour, and until after the first feeding, for breastfeeding women. " and "If mothers are more attached to their babies when they are not routinely separated in the moments after birth, then what about the baby who is eager to meet the mother? At the moment of birth, newborns have a heightened, protective response to tactile, odor, and thermal cues (Moore et al., 2012; Takahashi, Tamakoshi, Matsushima, & Kawabe, 2011). When the newborn is placed skin-to-skin with the mother, this heightened response stimulates behaviors that help to meet the newborn’s basic biological needs, activates neuroprotective mechanisms, enables early neurobehavioral self-regulation (Buckley, 2014; Widström, Lilja, Aaltomaa-Michalias, Dahllöf, & Nissen, 2011), and reduces stress" the breast crawl is simply beautiful. If an unmediated baby(if they're medicated, they can be tired from the medicine and unable to do this. Epidural included)  is placed on the mother's stomach right after birth, he will(in about an hour. Part of the golden hour)  actually crawl from your tummy to your breast and self latch! The smell in the amniotic fluid that is on his hands is in your breast! So he smells his hands and uses that to guide him! YouTube it. It's an amazing thing to watch! After I learned about that I knew I wanted to experience it. After i gave birth to all three of my babies, hearing them cry, not being with them sent me into an internal panic mode. I just wanted my babies. Where were my babies! I knew i felt like i needed them. I didn't realize there were actual hormones that drive this and that i didn't need to experience it! I knew I would give birth at a birthing center after that. My next train of thought was "what about the epidural! I need it!" After finding out they offer laughing gas at the birth center(which has no effects on baby) I felt a little better.  But I really started to look into it. Just like after the births of my babies, I confronted my feelings, my true feelings I'd never even told troy about, surrounding my births. At some point, with every single one, I was given pitocin.  A drug needed sometimes, but it's given to pretty much everyone now days unnecessarily. Take for instance Kadi. My water broke. They wanted better contractions. Instead of encouraging me to walk or other natural methods to try first it was "hook up the pitocin!" I have given birth three times. Not once did I ever even start the labor and delivery process naturally. How did I have three beautiful children, but never feel like I "had" them?? To be honest(not saying that if you don't, there's something wrong with you.  This was how I felt about myself only) I wondered if there wad something wrong with me. I've had three children and need pitocin with all. Was there something wrong with my body that it couldn't give birth without help? I watched the Business of Being Born and it spoke to my soul. Everything I felt deep down but never admitted.  Doctors want things on their schedule. Quick to progress, quick to mention c section, quick to get you in the post partum room. Their schedule. Not yours, not baby. I felt such relief when I found out it doesn't need to be that way! Ah. Now to bring up the thing I glorified the most! The epidural! I humbly admit I was wrong.... kinda... 😉 you see if you're in an unnatural birth setting like the hospital... bright lights... moniters...  ect you're more likely to need pitocin if your body is clamming up and not progressing. Pitocin raises the contraction pain not only for you, but for baby. If you're feeling unnatural pain, I feel like why not get the epidural to ease the pain. The whole thing is going against critical hormones you're experiencing already. Going reverse is also just as bad. If you get the epidural, it's literally slowing down your hormones that create contractions. Therefore you're way more likely to need pitocin. Picton can significantly put baby in stress mode, which can lead to emergency c section.  If you're pregnant and in labor and step foot in the hospital you have a 30% chance of c section. That's how high our rates are. This isn't making things safer. C sections are sometimes needed, but unnecessary most of the time due to many many factors. Because of our c section rate maternal deaths are one of the highest in the world. It makes sense, you're cutting someone open and moving around their insides and drs treat it like we're getting a tooth cleaning. Drs love it though. They're only the really to see you in the beginning and end. This way it's on there time frame, and they can be on their way. If you're in a natural setting like birth center with low lights, a midwife you know and trust coming in to check baby every once in a while,  music, calm, free to move around how your body feels(which is really baby guiding you how to move to get him further down the canal)  and to be able to give birth in any position (like my favorite midwife Ina May Gaskin says "you wouldn't have a bowel movement on your back, why would you do it with a baby? ") laying on your back is by far the WORST position to give birth. You are way less likely to need a c section. The birthing center I chose had a c section rate of 7%. That tells me if it's needed, it's needed! But 32% national average says something is wrong. Laugh if you want, but if you are going through labor and saying "no no no" and fearing your labor you are going to produce fear hormones,  as Ina explains "When we are afraid, the hormone released is adrenalin. This triggers the “Fight or Flight” response in us. In a nutshell, what happens is large amounts of blood rush away from our organs and go straight to our limbs so we can either run for our lives or stay and fight whatever is scaring the hell out of us.
In the first stage of labour, Adrenalin impedes oxytocin for this very reason. The uterus requires a huge amount of oxygenated blood to function optimally. When the fear sets in and our adrenal glands open, this takes the blood away from where it is most needed. This interference makes contractions much more painful and it s-l-o-w-s e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g- d-o-w-n. To quote Ina May once more; “If Oxytocin is the accelerator of birth, then adrenalin is the brakes”" 
If you relax and tell your body yes, yes, yes then oxytocin can be released "Every moment in your life when you felt good, for example; when you had dinner with friends, got married, were hugged or kissed, were made love to and or (!) had an orgasm, there was a hormone that was making it so. The hormone you should thank for all these wonderful experiences is oxytocin.
Maybe you would not associate being in labour with any of the feel good events mentioned above, and yet it is this hormone of love that is optimally coursing through us when we are in labour.  It’s importance during and after birth cannot be underestimated. In labour, oxytocin causes the uterus to contract and in turn the cervix to dilate. When a mother pushes her baby out, oxytocin levels are the highest they will ever be in a woman’s lifetime. This is important for two reasons. Firstly, the mother and baby (whose oxytocin levels have also peaked) lock eyes for the first time and fall deeply in love. This stimulates the let down reflex in the woman’s breasts to facilitate breastfeeding. Secondly, the oxytocin will keep the uterus contracting so that the placenta comes out. Oxytocin at this stage in labour greatly reduces the risk of postpartum haemorrhage. Oxytocin is the essential ingredient in the recipe of birth."
I'm so sorry this was so long for anyone who read it! I'm beyond excited to let my baby(first getting pregnant! Yes! Yes!) decide when it's birthday will be, letting my body for the first time start labor and delivery, and give birth with all of it being naturally in a warm environment. Troy and I are so excited to experience it all, really for the first time!! Oh yes, and i'm totally planning on extended breastfeeding... but that's another post!!😂😂😂

Answer

I haven’t seen it but I have gotten the gist of it! 
I unfortunately don’t have the resources for a home birth but I won’t be getting an epidural! And will have a birth plan as natural as possible. 
The same reason I don’t want invasive testing done.. I just want to do what people have been doing for millions of years. My body KNOWs what to do. And whatever chromosome issues or genetic or whatever may be, I will cross that bridge when we get there. But for now, leave that baby alone!

Answer

Yes it helped me keep my decision of having a home birth and I did with my second baby 11 months ago. 
Also plan to have one this time round with baby number 3. 
It's all about your state of mind. Of course if there were any medical concerns I would go to hospital but it was a straight forward birth. X

Answer

I watched it before I was pregnant and it made me feel more knowledgeable and I feel like I have more of a voice about what I will and won’t want during my birth.

Answer

Yes, it was very informative

The Business of Being Born ?

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