After watching both One
Born Every Minute and The Business of
Being Born, I noticed many similarities and differences between the two.
One similarity I noticed was that many of the things The Business of Being Born frowned upon during labor in hospitals were
evident in the show. The Business of
Being Born really reiterated the fact that hospitals make it hard for women
to have natural births because they in a sense persuade them into taking drugs.
Once you take a dosage of one, you have to keep having more, therefore many
women go in with the idea that they are going to have a natural birth and end
up leaving without accomplishing that. In the show One Born Every Minute drugs were highly encouraged and more than
one kind was given to the women in labor. A major difference I noticed was the
way the women acted in labor. The women displayed in The Business of Being Born were very relaxed and in calm environments,
free to walk around and do what helped them deal with the pain. The women
displayed in One Born Every Minute appeared
to be in a lot more agony and highly stressed out, which has to be less healthy
for the baby. The women giving birth in
One Born Every Minute had a whole team of people who helped with the
arrival of the baby. The main doctor who delivered the baby was also a male. In
The Business of Being Born, only one
female mid-wife was present during the pregnancy. In watching both, it seems as
though the women in The Business of Being
Born had a lot more control over their pregnancy and that the mid-wife
seemed to genuinely care more, because she had a more personal relationship with
her patient. The interests and concerns of the women in One Born Every Minute are a lot less important. The doctors will
pretty much do what they deem necessary to speed up the amount of time women
spend in labor. In The Business of Being
Born the woman giving birth is depicted as being knowledgeable because it
is her body that is going to naturally
do what it is supposed to. In One Born
Every Minute, it is definitely the doctors that are more knowledgeable. The
doctors and nurses pretty much tell you what to do and why you should do it
instead of letting a women’s body run its natural course. Birthing in One Born Every Minute is portrayed as
being long, scary, and painful, while birthing in The Business of Being Born is portrayed as natural, peaceful and
calm. I think all of this can greatly impact women’s health. There are clearly
negatives and positives of giving birth at the hospital and at home. By closely
looking at the two, we can figure out methods that work best and most
efficiently for women, thus making the whole experience of birthing a much more
positive experience for many women.
