**NOTE** Medical advancements have saved the lives of women and babies at risk for injury or death during pregnancy and birth. This site is not about the doctors who properly use interventions to save lives; it is about those who use them unethically for profit or convenience. Improperly used interventions have led to harm and death of women and babies and obstetrics is the only field in which mortality rates are rising and non-medically needed interventions such as c-sections are related to 66% of maternal deaths.
**NOTE** This site is designed to share valid evidence for those working to change the maternal healthcare system who do not have access to databases of peered research.
**NOTE** Chronological order allows users to find new data. It also begs the question of why, when we have known for decades that such practices are harmful, do they not only continue to be used but are increasingly used.
MEDIA SITES WITH FILMS, DOCUMENTARIES AND SIMILAR
The film that started it all: Birth Time: the Documentary.
There was a plethora of research in late 1990s and early 2000s challenging harm being done by medicalization of pregnancy and birth and at that time, it was a topic that I researched and taught in my Global Issues class in which we explored global health. As a result of the research and outcry,.changes began to lessen the practice. Then abortion became a hot topic of politicians and medicalization faded into the background and we moved on to other global health issues. In 2921, I stumbled across this documentary out of Australia and thought it would have been a great documentary when I was talking about medicalization of pregnancy and birth in class, but why now? A trip to the academic databases informed that the lessening of the practice had not continued and, in fact, under the cover of the other political issues had grown. Out of that came an international conference on the medicalization of pregnancy and birth and an on campus event as well as the topic being incorporated back into my classes.
As part of a self-discovery research assignment, students were asked to include a film review of the documentary and 100% of them supported the claims made in the documentary. An important point brought out by students is that rather than creating an adversarial approach, the documentary sought to inform all players of the problems in maternal healthcare and offer solutions that promoted obstetricians, midwives, families, and all involved working together to make birth less traumatic for women and their families. I recommend the documentary for use in classes exploring maternal healthcare. The film and other related information can be accessed at Birth Time World https://www.birthtime.world/
2022
Giving Birth in America Series from Every Mother Counts https://everymothercounts.org/giving-birth-in-america/ and https://www.cnn.com/specials/every-mother-counts
- CONCLUDED (from site) “As part of our Giving Birth in America series, we created educational videos featuring insights from a variety of health care providers. Hear from OBGYNs, L & D nurses, midwives, family practice doctors, maternal fetal specialists, professors, policy makers, lawyers, researchers, and social workers – as they cover maternal health topics in greater depth. These perspectives help to paint a fuller picture of the contributing factors to the maternal health crisis in the United States. Topics include racism and discrimination, background and explanations on different roles, systematic complexities and barriers to providing care, immigration barriers, mental health, collaborative care, insurance barriers, complications in pregnancy and childbirth, and post-partum care.”
2020
Does the Medicalizaation of Birth Harm Mothers? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNfsnDKnVsQ
- CONCLUDED: (from site https://www.kindredmedia.org/2020/03/does-the-medicalization-of-birth-harm-mothers/ “Since the 1920s—and especially after World War II—the regulation and medicalization of childbirth has steered mothers away from midwives to physicians in hospitals. This medicalization has saved a lot of lives. But, as Rochester Institute of Technology professor Lauren Hall shows in this video, over-medicalization has also pushed low-risk mothers into unnecessary medical interventions without their informed consent in order to keep the assembly line of the hospital moving.”
2019
Byrom, S. and Downe,S. (2019). Respectful Maternity Care: A Call to Action. Accessed https://www.maternityandmidwifery.co.uk/respectful-maternity-care-a-call-to-action/
- Dr Sheena Byrom, Director, The Practising, Midwife & Professor Soo Downe OBE, Professor in Midwifery Studies, UCLAN give a presentation discussing “Respectful Maternity Care: A Call to Action” at the International Maternity Expo 2019
2018
These Are My Hours https://www.thesearemyhours.com/
- CONCLUDED: from site “Giving birth is one of life’s most transformative moments. This documentary film unveils the secret that birth is also a source of feminist empowerment and an act of revolution. Discover what autonomous birth looks like, and hear what it means as a laboring woman narrates her own experience of birthing a child.”
2016
Why Not Home? https://www.whynothome.com/
- CONCLUDED (from site) ” Why would doctors who attend birth in hospitals choose to have their own babies at home? What do they know about birth that others don’t? Join Jessicca Moore, filmmaker and nurse practitioner, on a compelling journey through maternity care in the United States. Told through the lens of doctors, nurses, and midwives, Why Not Home? examines the latest evidence on risks and rewards of different birth settings. The film presents a balanced and accessible view on the latest research, along with moving personal stories of medical practitioners faced with big decisions for their own growing families. Viewers are challenged to move beyond preconceived ideas, and to envision a fresh future for maternity care in America.”
2015
The Mama Sherpas http://themamasherpas.com/#watch-the-film
- CONCLUDED (from site) “from executive producers Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein (The Business of Being Born), this topical new documentary, directed by Brigid Maher, examines a growing shift in the birthing industry: the rise of Caesarean sections. With C-section rates dangerously over 30% in America, are midwives the solution? In recent years, the idea of a “collaborative care” practice where doctors and midwives manage women’s care together has begun to gain traction. Research has demonstrated that collaborative care models produce better outcomes for mother and baby, including fewer C-sections. This moving and urgent film provides an intimate lens into how midwives across the country work within and better the hospital system, redefining how the US looks at the birthing process.”
2014
Microbirth https://microbirth.com/the-film/
- CONCLUDED: (from site) “Microbirth” is a 60 minute documentary looking at the latest scientific research about the microscopic events happening during childbirth.
“Microbirth” reveals the latest scientific thinking on how best to “seed” a baby’s microbiome in order to build the strongest possible immune system. This cutting-edge science has the potential to not only improve the health of our children across a lifetime, but also across generations still to come.”
2012
Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and the Farm Midwives https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUTKmk9fozs
- CONCLUDED: From IMBD https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2395155/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl “Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and The Farm Midwives captures a spirited group of women who taught themselves how to deliver babies on a 1970s hippie commune. Today as nearly one third of all US babies are born via C-section, they fight to protect their knowledge and to promote respectful, safe maternity practices all over the globe. From the backs of their technicolor school buses, these pioneers rescued American midwifery from extinction, changed the way a generation approached pregnancy, and filmed nearly everything they did. With unprecedented access to the midwives’ archival video collection, as well as modern day footage of life at the alternative intentional community where they live, this documentary shows childbirth the way most people have never seen it–unadorned, unabashed, and awe-inspiring.”
The Face of Birth: Available on Amazon Prime, Vimeo, Kanopy and other streaming sites. Film website is https://faceofbirth.com
- CONCLUDED: from IMBD “The Face of Birth – a film about pregnancy, childbirth, and the power of choice. This documentary follows the diverse, heart-warming and sometimes heart wrenching stories of a handful of mothers as they guide us through the plethora of information and opinions facing mothers-to-be when deciding how, where and with whom to give birth to their babies.”
The Business of Being Born https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3w7cvw
- CONCLUDED: From IMDB https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0995061/ Birth: it’s a miracle. A rite of passage. A natural part of life. But more than anything, birth is a business. Compelled to find answers after a disappointing birth experience with her first child, actress Ricki Lake recruits filmmaker Abby Epstein to explore the maternity care system in America. Focusing on New York City, the film reveals that there is much to distrust behind hospital doors and follows several couples who decide to give birth on their own terms. There is an unexpected turn when director Epstein not only discovers she is pregnant, but finds the life of her child on the line. Should birth be viewed as a natural life process, or should every delivery be treated as a potential medical emergency?
Pregnant in America https://tubitv.com/movies/15647/pregnant-in-america?start=true&utm_source=google-feed&tracking=google-feed OR https://pluto.tv/en/on-demand/movies/pregnant-in-america-2017-1-1?utm_medium=textsearch&utm_source=google
- CONCLUDED (from IMDB https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1231290/ “Pregnant In America is the true story of Steve and Mandy Buonaugurio, a young, adventurous, expectant couple, who decide to take a daring and potentially dangerous approach to having their first child–outside the modern American medical system. What they learn about hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, midwives, and home birth as they travel across the United States and Europe interviewing experts and confronting birthing situations, exposes them to some shocking and disturbing realities about America¹s maternity care system and what is happening to women and babies. Ultimately, what they learn impacts on and alters the outcome of their own pregnancy”