Thoughts on "The Business of Being Born"

I just got done watching "The Business of Being Born" and was glad to see the home birth perspective, but unconvinced that I needed to change my own birth plan. I have to say, I wanted more of a cohesive narrative. They show many women in labor at their homes, but there isn't much introduction of them and no background information is given on why they made the decision to labor at home. Well, some of the women explain their reasoning, but not by any means all. I think it would have been better to feature three or four women and follow them through their pregnancies, having one or two end up in home births, one end in an uncomplicated vaginal delivery and one end in cessarian and then let the viewer draw his/her own conclusions about which experience was the most positive instead of having a succession of interviewees make the claim that home birth is the safest and best option. I just think it was a bit heavy handed with it's message. That being said, it had good information in it or at least enough information that it gives you good leads on what to research in greater depth on your own.

My husband was messing around with his computer in the room while I watched the movie and at one point he commented on a delivery scene. "Why is she naked?" he asked. I shrugged and said, "beacuse she's in labor and maybe that's how she feels most comfortable." He said, "Well, I don't see why she has to be naked." Now, I'm kind of a walk around the house naked on occasion type of person, so I don't consider wanting to be naked during labor and delivery to be unusual at all. I told him that if he had a problem with that, then we could implant him with my uterus and he can take over and deliver the baby himself. "Oh, right," I said, "you can't do that. So why don't you just let me do whatever helps get me through this, even if it means I find hospital gowns to be uncomfortable and want to go naked." I think he thought I was just being hormonal, but he needs to get used to the idea of being supportive during the process and also knowing what to expect and what is going to be expected of him. I get the impression he thinks he's just going to play sudoku on his phone between contractions while I'll presumably behave in a manner similar to every sitcom labor he's ever seen, and the nurses and midwife will take care of everything else.

He also said "gross" when one of the babies was delivered in the movie. I said, "Sorry, it's a gross process, so don't wear any clothes that day that you would mind getting icky."
He went to bed before the end of the movie, which was fine since he was busy with his tech stuff and I put it on for me to watch, so it wasn't like a let's sit down and watch this together and then discuss it type of night. It's on Netflix so if he wants to watch it, he can. I wish he would have watched more or seemed more interested in the parts he did watch, but it took him awhile to get used to the idea of ditching contraception, so maybe he'll come around to realizing that labor is an intense and dynamic process in his own time. I'm certain that the Bradley Method classes I'm considering will go a long way towards managing his expectations of what labor will be like, which is part of the reason I find them so appealling. It's a 12 week course, so he'll have plenty of time to wrap his head around what his role will be and we'll both have lots of practice with relaxation techniques that will help with the pain.