The Attached Mother

Many people know about the movie The Business of Being Born. It has gotten a lot of great press and endorsement all around. But there is another movie in a similar theme that most people have not yet heard of.

Orgasmic Birth is a film that follow 11 women as they give birth as a “a free, sensuous, joyous moment”. The concept of orgasmic birth is certainly not new. Anyone who has visited the Born Free website has probably browsed through the Sensual Pregnancy and Birth section. For some women giving birth is far from the pain and stress portrayed in the media and instead a beautiful, passionate experience.

In the movie Orgasmic Birth we get to see birth as it happens to these mothers who say they are opening themselves up for joy. Dr. Christiane Northrup and Ina May Gaskin provide commentary throughout the movie, two big names in the natural childbirth community. As much as the story focuses on these powerful women giving birth it also looks at the childbirth industry in general. Marsden Wagner, MD, Former World Health Organization, Director of Women’s and Children’s Health weighs in with his thoughts on medical childbirth in the movie as well.

Very clear hard evidence in the last ten years the number of women who are induced, that is their labor is kick-started , it’s doubling. You kick-start labor by giving them a powerful drug. And then you give them more drugs to keep the labor going. Now there are about five to ten percent of women in which there’s a good medical reason to do this, and you’re saving lives and all that. But if you go above ten percent, you’re not saving lives anymore. These are powerful drugs with all kinds of risks, including brain damage to the baby, a dead baby, a dead woman. And yet we do it twice as much. And there’s so much pain in induction, it’s incredible pain. And so they have to come with all the pain relief and the epidurals and all of that. So we get induction, leading to epidural, which leads to caesarian. And that is what’s happening in this country. Now why? Did something happen? Did American women’s bodies suddenly go bad? Did American women’s bodies suddenly lose the ability to figure out when it’s time to go into labor? Goodness no! You know, why do sixty to eighty percent of American women have to have powerful drugs and interventions to their bodies? Well, it has nothing to do with there being anything wrong with their body. And it’s not because of bad doctors, it’s a bad system.

Orgasmic Birth has the potential to be a must-see movie for 2008. Right now the DVDs are only available at screenings of the film, but scheduled for general release late fall or winter of this year. If you are interested in hosting a screening of the movie in your area visit the hosting page and download the contract and reservation forms you will need. Here is the trailer for the film via YouTube. Check it out for yourself.

childbirth, birth, orgasmic birth, natural childbirth