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			BORN IN THE U.S.A.

Tell us what you think about BORN IN THE U.S.A..

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11/11/2005
Mom of 3

FL

I am pregnant with my third child and though I like the IDEA of having an at home birth, I feel it is way too risky. My 2 daughters were born at the hospital and this baby will be too. With my 2nd daughter, had I not been at the hospital, she would have died almost immediatly after birth. In our situation we would have not had enough time to go from home to the hospital because she worsened that quickly. Mind you, I had a normal healthy pregnancy with no complications...what happened to my daughter was literally a fluke of nature. I thank God for hospitals and the doctors that we have, especially the ones who saved my precious daughter's life!

05/28/2004
Laura Kalt
Gainesville, FL

I found the film facinating. I'm 32 years old, and my husband and I are looking to start a family soon. I am less afraid of the process after watching this film. It dispelled the myths that I had about childbirth, midwifery & childbirthing centers. In the hospital setting, I see an unnecessary loss of control for the mother and father. When a woman has a healthy prenatal experience & low risk factors, I believe having the child with a midwife & doula is a perfectly sound option. Many of the women I know that are mothers to be have talked about their extreme fear of childbirth and the pain involved. I work with rape survivors and many have extreme fear of the criminal justice system(understandably so), but I find that given honest information, thorough emotional support, and control over their involvement in the process, that many women walk away feeling empowered and face what seemed insurmountable & terrifying. Unfortunately, just like the criminal justice system, hospitals, have little understanding of this and resist change. Thanks to the filmmakers for their efforts.

Spencer Roberts

Palm Springs, CA

It seems to me from looking at the rich information so generously given on this Web site that a healthy woman would want to be informed of her possibilites and would most likely choose a midwife assisted birth. My wife has had all of our three children at home and the experience has been wonderful. We were living in a big city at the time and had many options. I wonder if those living in smaller towns or rural communities would have access to the three types of birthing methods mentioned here?
I look forward to watching this show. Kudos to the directors and the folks that did this Web site on getting important information out there!

Lisa
Michigan

As a homebirth midwife, I have worked in hospitals(as labor support only), and attended about 400 births out of hospital (including breech and twin births). The births that were attended by midwives were much more empowering for the mom and the whole family. I feel that some OB/GYN's convince women that birth is something they can not do without medical intervention. Midwives, on the other hand, believe in birth and talk positively with the whole family during the pregnancy.
I think it is time for this film!! Birth is a memory that lasts a lifetime-it should be a GOOD memory, not a horror.
I was in a 'chat room' for pregnant women the other day and all I saw was fear and horror stories. I asked if anyone had a good experience to share and most only spoke about after they got home. I was so sad. I even told them I was a midwife and could answer questions, nothing but fear. Even at baby showers!
I think films like this should be shown in high schools. Girls need to learn that there are many choices for birth, and they don't have to be so fearful.
Thanks, L

Leonette DiMuro
Babiladi@aol.com
Redlands, CA

would love to see this program on a los angeles or san Bernardion Ca station. How can we make that happen? This information need to be made avaialble at reasonable times NOt just the middle of the night!

>> You can download the BORN IN THE U.S.A. Community Action Guide on the website at www.itvs.org/bornintheusa for more information.

Marie Esch-Radtke
SeattleWyzWoman@aol.com
Auburn, WA

I'm sooooo excited to hear about this program! It's not yet scheduled to air up here in Seattle, but I'll be sure to HOUND my local PBS station, starting TOMORROW!!!!

I am a 47 year old RN with 23 years of perinatal experience in the home, birth center and hospital setting. Which is WHY, at my "advanced age," I am preparing to apply to our local direct-entry (non-nurse) midwifery school! For MOST women, a home or birth center birth is not only more pleasant, it's SAFER!

I frequent various chat rooms and message boards on AOL, and I'll be sure to advertise this fine undertaking to one and all!

Kudos to the families, care-providers and filmmakers involved....you are appreciated!!!!

Canadian mom

My most heartfelt congratulations to PBS and the film-makers for putting together this documentary and related website commentary! The over-medicalization of birth has been discussed many, many times by those in the know, but rarely has the discussion been given the high profile it will receive on PBS. Kudos to everyone involved. You are doing North American families a great service. I'd like to recommend a book I found very informative on the same subject. It's called Pregnancy and Childbirth Tips and is written by Gail Dahl. Her website is at <http://www.pregnancytips.com/>

BD Vega
beli@guerrillagrrls.com
Georgia

Your website has many great resources. I would also like to suggest another book and companion website.

The book is called "Birthing from Within" by Pam England, it is an excellent book to help women prepare for childbirth. The companion website is at http://www.birthingfromwithin.com

I look forward to seeing the show on my PBS station!

Amy
Massachusetts

As a mother of 3, one vaginal hospital delivery, 1 c-section delivery,and finally a normal vaginal homebirth delivery, I found this program fascinating. I do wish it was easier to find the broadcast in TV listings and not only being aired in the middle of the night. It would be appropriate viewing for all pregnant woman early in their pregnancy so they could make informed decisions regarding their care and of their choices! Kudos to recognizing the need and getting the info out there.

mommy2three

Thanks for the wonderful website...as a homebirth mom I have faced a multitude of people who have questioned me about the safety of homebirth. Thank you for showing the dirty little secret the medical community continues to hide. Babies should be born where Mom is the most comfortable, for me that was a home. When will this show air in downstate New York?

Kara Chilleri

I just learned of your production today, a day late. As I looked up the broadcast times in my area, I noticed it aired at 4:00am. I wonder why something so wonderful would only be on at a time when insomniacs could enjoy it?

I'm sad I missed this and hope another opportunity arises so that I may view this film.

Many of my friends, including myself, chose natural childbirth. The midwives tend to care for the whole woman. They look after emotional wellbeing as well as that of the unborn child. The stressfree environment was so freeing and natural, I only wish I could give through verbal osmosis the benefit of that choice, if its available.

Thank you!

Dani Martinez
DaniDoula@aol.com
Richardson, TX

I've heard great things about this program. I've looked over your website and I think its a wonderful program. Unfortunately, it did not air in my area and I would really love to see it. As a doula and aspiring midwife, I think it would be beneficial to me to view this as educational material. I'd also like to think that you'd want to have more people viewing it, so why not put it on at a reasonable time and in all major areas? I hope you will and look forward to seeing a new broadcast schedule with viewings in my area. Thanks in advance. Dani Martinez

>>Please see the Community Guide for how to contact your local public television station

Cathy
Lisystrata@aol.com
Northern Virginia

I, too, think this is an excellent effort. I am wanting to hear/see more, though on how mothers (and fathers too) cope when things don't go as well as planned, or if they feel in hindsight they could have made different choices. Also, I want to point out that the process of labor and delivery is a very under-researched event. I often wonder about genetics as far as how women physioligically go through this. Have there been familial studies? How likely is a woman's experience of pregnancy, labor and delivery to be similar to her mother's, her sisters', etc. Are there some women who are inherently more or less prone to problems? These are questions I still have, even though my children are now 9 1/2 and 8 years old.(Both C-sections, by the way, first one planned because of transverse position, second was an emergency because baby's vitals gave everyone a scare. I have an older sister who had a transverse child, and external version took care of it. Unfortunately this did not work in my case.) And how does child spacing effect things, if at all? There are so many variables, but that doesn't mean it is not worth looking into. I just think these things, like many matters involving women, are still a bit behind the times. It is time women became fully empowered by the medical establishment. If the medics want to be so involved, than I think they should be doing a lot more research in this area.

Laurie
lmommy@home.com

I was really disappointed to find that this film was not about the full range of safe options to childbearing families and alternatives to medical management of birth as it was touted, but rather a discourse on a good-better-best type range of the accepted model that childbirth is a medical event that requires the propper expert supervision to proceed safely. On the contrary, the only real alternative to this erroneous paradigm is recognition of the fact that childbirth is NOT a medical event at all, but a normal, healthy, bodily function, and treating it otherwise (even in a more "wholistic" or "maternalistic" manner the way midwifery does) is what complicates it in the majority of cases.

In other words, approaching childbirth from the point of view that it is an unassisted process (and rightly so), which like other bodily functions proceeds best without monitoring or interference or special attention, and whose participants fare best when given true privacy (not the mock privacy of midwives hovering and inserting their hands into women's bodies intermittently) and are given unrestricted, unpatronizing access to the information that affects their childbearing choices.

The medical problems that do sometimes occur simultaneously with childbirth should not lead to the medicalization of childbirth itself, except in the extremely rare case of a necessary surgical birth, in which case every precaution should be taken to ensure that nothing unnecessary and harmful (like separation of infant and mother) is done to the birthing family in the name of care-giver routine or liability protection. The state of childbirth in the United States of America is shameful, and I'd sincerely hoped to see more thoughtful, in depth coverage of this horrible human tragedy.

For more information about true alternatives to the current rampant medicalization of childbirth, please see two wonderfully informative websites:
http://members.home.net/lmommy/thoughts.html
and
http://www.unassistedchildbirth.com

Stacey
San Francisco

I have to wonder if "lmommy" saw the same film I did. I did not feel it suggested that medical-centered birth is most appropriate, in fact it was just the opposite. Did anyone else notice that the two babies born in the birthing center and at home did not cry at all, whereas the two babies born in hospitals cried a lot? It seemed like the first two births led up to the best birth, the home birth; finally, the hospital c-section birth was kind of a "see what can happen to you" tale. I was actually surprised by the way that birth turned out. The mom was flat on her back every time we saw her, and no one ever suggested she get up and walk around. Of course, how could she, what with the internal fetal monitor and IV tying her down? I have no children but, when the time comes, I intend to birth at home with a midwife. One question raised in the film was cost; midwives don't often take insurance and birthing centers don't often take MediCare. However, I think if you can't afford proper birthing attendants, perhaps you shouldn't be having a baby in the first place.

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