Thanks to my son, Mikey, I am reconnecting with real food. I am also discovering other aspects of life that need rediscovering like childbirth. This week, I saw a pre-release showing of Ricki Lake's film, The Business of Being Born. Ricki researches the past and present of childbirth. The best part of the film was seeing childbirth out of a hospital setting. I came away from the film feeling like I too could have a home birth.
Mikey was born by cesarean. The whole experience was so traumatic that I can't talk about it without crying. I believe that everyone in my delivery room was doing the best that they knew how to keep me and Mikey safe and grant me a natural birth, but even knowing this, I am still upset. The sad thing is that the women who have witnessed my embarrassing breakdown, say that they feel the same way about their birth experience.
In the film, Ricki Lake offers another point of view. By using some shocking images, she captures the viewers attention. And then, she urges us to realize that our bodies know how to have babies and shows us that having a baby is not a medical condition that needs treatment. Her film gave me courage and the extra push to try for another natural birth.
Maybe it was my cesarean surgery that made me realize that I need to listen to myself and believe in what I know is right instinctually for me and my son. It gave me the strength to go against the grain with nutrition. It sounds a bit like Al Gore's message on climate change. The human race cannot continue on the path that it is on. We can't continue eating poor food, we can't continue having children by drugs and/or major abdominal surgery, we can't continue stressing our fragile ecosystems. Each individual person has the power to make change at least for themselves and their children. Let's take responsibility for our health, our children and our earth. It is not someone else's job, it is our job.
The Business of Being Born
http://www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com/about.htm
International Cesarean Awareness Network
http://ican-online.net/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
Mikey was born by cesarean. The whole experience was so traumatic that I can't talk about it without crying. I believe that everyone in my delivery room was doing the best that they knew how to keep me and Mikey safe and grant me a natural birth, but even knowing this, I am still upset. The sad thing is that the women who have witnessed my embarrassing breakdown, say that they feel the same way about their birth experience.
In the film, Ricki Lake offers another point of view. By using some shocking images, she captures the viewers attention. And then, she urges us to realize that our bodies know how to have babies and shows us that having a baby is not a medical condition that needs treatment. Her film gave me courage and the extra push to try for another natural birth.
Maybe it was my cesarean surgery that made me realize that I need to listen to myself and believe in what I know is right instinctually for me and my son. It gave me the strength to go against the grain with nutrition. It sounds a bit like Al Gore's message on climate change. The human race cannot continue on the path that it is on. We can't continue eating poor food, we can't continue having children by drugs and/or major abdominal surgery, we can't continue stressing our fragile ecosystems. Each individual person has the power to make change at least for themselves and their children. Let's take responsibility for our health, our children and our earth. It is not someone else's job, it is our job.
The Business of Being Born
http://www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com/about.htm
International Cesarean Awareness Network
http://ican-online.net/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1