The Business of Being Born

We are working hard to pull together the details for a special "kickoff" event this December. We will be hosting a special benefit screening of Ricki Lake's new documentary, "The Business of Being Born." We've reserved White Auditorium at Northwest Arkansas Community College (more details to follow) which seats 250 people. Let's fill those seats!

I'm very excited about the attention that is increasingly being paid to the real state of affairs in maternity care today. I recently was introduced to the head of obstetrics of a local hospital and I told her about BirthNetwork and a little bit about the film. It's definitely a difficult subject to talk about with a member of the medical establishment. It's easier talking about the "woes" of care that isn't mother-friendly or evidence-based to people who already feel the way I do. But as birth activists and advocates, we really need to bring this conversation out into the public forum. We need to learn how to talk to CEO's of hospitals and heads of nursing and obstetrics and labor and delivery. We need to do more than encourage women to stand up for themselves. We need to be willing to put on our best "dress for success" suits and walk into those hospitals and advocate for women directly.

The conversation really revolves around transparency in maternity care. Women have the right to full access to information about risks and benefits of procedures, rates of intervention for hospitals and providers, and they need to be informed of all their options without pressure to choose more intervention. Women won't be able to do what's best for them and their babies until they know that choosing a care provider is much more than just finding the hospital with the nicest birthing suites. I hope that this benefit screening will finally open up the conversation here.