Pregnant in America

I met with my VBAC support group last night and we watched Pregnant in America. This was the 2nd time I’ve seen this movie but I’d forgotten how good it was. It’s the journey of a couple expecting their first child. They travel around the country and world researching birth and interviewing childbirth experts. It covers a wide range of topics including: home birth, hospital birth, doctors, midwives, doulas, pitocin, epidural, cytotec and natural birth. It’s a very well put together movie with very important information. Anyone expecting a baby should watch this movie and watch it with their partner. You can pick it up at the library or Amazon. Here’s the link to their website.


The movie is pro home birth (which I like) and does have a lot of info regarding it. I am very pleased with this fact because I am a home birth fan. I believe for me and that in most cases home birth is the safest option for birthing. I believe very much that women’s bodies know how to give birth even if our brains don’t. I believe that a laboring woman shouldn’t have to fight with her care givers during labor to get what she wants or doesn’t want (& that seems to be the case in hospitals). I believe that a laboring woman should be left alone unless there are medical reasons to interfere. We need to be supported in birth not rescued from birth. I know that not all women can or should home birth, but this group of women is the minority not the majority. The medical community sees birth as a medical event, where women need to be “saved” from birth. I don’t see it that way. I see the moment of my child’s birth as a wonderful, beautiful event and I don’t need to be saved, I need support and then to be left alone to let my body do what it needs to bring my child into this world.