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Katiuska Herrand
Professor Jennifer Gaboury
Women and Gender Studies
November, 7th. 2010

The Business of Feminism

As feminism is translated into the many sectors of life for women, the topic of birth is
approached with hesitation. Embracing motherhood as a display of female empowerment, Ricki
Lake’s documentary The Business of Being Born explores the range of options women have in
relation to birth and the body. Society, on an international scale, has misconstrued the birthing
process and disregarded the choices women have in a way that directly supports the medical
industry. In this paper, I will examine the connection of birth to feminism and the importance of
the alternative that pieces such as Lake’s documentary offer women.
The Business of Being Born focuses on both the enlightenment and empowerments of a
new generation of mothers. As a realm of choice feminism, motherhood is embraced with
reservations and left for interpretation; one is a feminist for not bearing children and one is a
feminist for doing so. Culturally, childbirth has been presented through text and the media, as a
burdening process that the medical industry pacifies through the consumption of unnecessary and
dangerous drugs meant to “ease” a woman’s journey. Women are taught to fear the process and
submit authority to doctors to ensure what they are told is the safest method of childbirth. Lake,
serving as a testament for other women who have experienced childbirth in a hospital and then
experienced a home birth, attempts to go against the norm surrounding the business of birth by
introducing women to an alternative and its ease of access.
The alternative that The Business of Being Born presents for women is the opportunity for
involvement in the process, as they should be offered, rather than the interventions the medical
industry presents.
“The films fundamental question: should most births be viewed as a natural life process,
or should every delivery be treated as a medical emergency?” (p. 3)
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A woman’s right and power, in connection to birth, is based around this fundamental question;
the way in which society perceives childbirth. The percentage of births that are considered a
medical emergency, when placed in comparison to births perceived as normal is at such a low
number that it puts the necessity pressed amongst expecting mothers to deliver in hospitals under
questioning. The medical industry has trained its professionals to intervene as a form of
assistance for the birth which then creates complications for the child and mother. Two
commonly used drug interventions are the Epidural and Pitocin. The Epidural is used to ease the
pain but slows down the contractions. Pitocin is then administered to trigger contractions but it
distresses the baby and causes the mother to experience painful contractions where she is then,
again, given another Epidural which is followed by the administration of Pitocin and we find
ourselves in a cycle of dangerous drugs which more than often leads to a Cesarean section that
allows the hospitals to charge the medical insurance companies a surgical fee.
“The lithotomy position is the most physiologically dysfunctional position ever
invented,” says medical anthropologist Robbie Davis-Floyd, author of Birth as an
American Rite of Passage. “Putting the mother flat on her back literally makes the pelvis
smaller, makes it much more difficult for the woman to use her stomach muscles to push,
and therefore makes it much more likely for an episiotomy to be cut, or for the forceps to
be used, or for the vacuum extractor to be used” (p. 7)
As viewed in the documentary, the process of childbirth is a biological process that exists without
interference or “interventions”; a woman’s body guides her and the child through with little or no
help. The positioning of the woman in hospitals presents her with complications where as when
performed at home, a woman is allowed space for movement and is rarely assisted therefore she
is able to maintain control over the situation as her body naturally gives birth. With its
presentation submerged in simplicity one is left to explore the social conditions that shape our
choices as women. In relation to childbirth, Feminism finds itself defending both ends of the
spectrum. For those that are post modern feminists, an acceptance of medicated birth is a symbol
of feminism because it contradicts the idea that has been adapted where childbirth is a
punishment that women suffer under. This idea of negatively associating birth with women stems
from the bible, an artifact that destroys the image of women through second hand accounts of
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spirituality in history. On the other end of the spectrum, to reject medicated birth is an act of
feminism as women accept the process naturally and are empowered as individuals by it.
Feminism surrounds the acquisition of all human rights, which entails the right of choice.
The underlining feminist stance presented in the documentary is of the advocacy of women’s
right to choice which we have seen historically ignored in the medical practice of birth.
“…I discovered that the business of being born is another infuriating way medical
traditions and institutions – hospitals and insurance companies – actually discourage
choice and even infringe on parents‟ intimate rites, ultimately obstructing the powerful
natural connection between mother and newborn child.” (p. 4)
Midwifery is presented as an alternative option to women where they are able to give birth in a
comfortable setting with the aid of a trained physician who simply stands by if needed for a
medical emergency. If there is no emergency present, she allows the woman complete control as
well as offering the connection with the child that she is limited from experiencing in hospitals.
“Why has the medical model of birth gone unchallenged for so long?” Epstein and Lake
ask. “And why do less than 8% of Americans take advantage of the benefits of midwifery,
which is statistically safer and cheaper than physician-attended birth?” (p. 9)
Both an economically friendly and safer approach to birth, midwifery offers the woman a voice
in her birth process. As the documentary searched into historical birth procedures, both
researchers and audience are left in awe when presented with the excessive use of harmful drugs
to induce birth. One horrifying procedure that Lake presents is the ‘twilight sleep”. In 1902,
Scopolamine is introduced as a drug that voids the pain associated with birth, yet rather than
eliminate pain it eliminates the memory of pain. It was also known to send the women into
distress where they would be restrained to their beds, blindfolded and left to lie in their own feces
for days at hand. The acceptance of this drug into the medical field, though repealed, is an
example of the lack of advocacy for women’s rights over her health and the health of her child.
“In America, midwives attend less than 8% of all births and less than 1% of those occur
outside a hospital. At the same time, the US has the second worst newborn death rate in
the developed world. So how did we get here?” (p. 6)
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How is it possible that a nation of international power finds itself ranked as the second worst in
newborn death rates? With the increasing emphasis on scientific involvement, we have socially
belittled the strength of the human body and the strength of women. As the medical industry
continues to capitalize,women are further thrust into methods of birth that present them with
immutable complications.
In hopes to further educate women on their right of choice, Ricki Lake presents a
feminist movement in birth with her documentary The Business of Being Born as she empowers
the strength of the female body. Though the implications of choice leave way for opposition to
certain choices, feminism is a movement strengthening the female involvement in all aspects of
her life, presenting her with choices to lean towards or move from. As an experience catered
directly towards women, birth must be accompanied with the presence of informed thought. As a
necessary act of advocacy for women’s safety, which is so often hushed scientifically in the aims
of profit, women, internationally, must begin to further include themselves in their options; to
find the power in being a woman.
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Works Cited
The Business of Being Born. Dir. Abby Epstein. Red Envelope Entertainment and New Line
Home Entertainment. 87 minutes. 2008.