Birth is natural: true. However, so are pain, death, and deformity. Unfortunately, some people chose to ignore the fact that until the advent of modern medicine, many women (and their babies) died in childbirth, and in many countries this is still a major problem. Many of these people – whom I henceforth dub the Woo Conspiracy – also claim that pregnancy and parturition have become A Business.
This, of course, must be true because they say so and is A Bad Thing. To prove this hypothesis, an actress and a female director – not investigative reporters or possessing any medical qualification – made a film about called The Business of Being Born, “making choices based on faith and intuition” (verbatim from the ‘Director’s Statement’).
I was not aware that “faith and intuition” have their place as the basis of a documentary. Apparently Nature doesn’t make exceptions for them either, which nearly lost Ms Epstein her son.
Below is the synopsis on the site promoting the film. And the book. And the DVD. And merchandise. Yes, I thought that clashed a bit with the “birth is also big business” attitude as well. A couple of translations first:
- “intimate birth stories” = they followed a homebirth midwife around;
- “surprising historical, political and scientific insights” = apparently some yoga and ‘fertility-awareness’ bird that also does ‘detox’ and ‘anthroposophic medicine’.
