BABIES

Instead of inching closer to my third completed season of "Law & Order: SVU" for the summer, I've tried to mix in another genre of Netflix Instant Play options: documentaries. I loved watching documentaries throughout middle and high school, and my heavy diet of PBS as a small child has created an appreciation in me for the grassroots-like footage and simple message of an hour-long look into a particular issue or historical event.

Last night's choice was "The business of being born," a project taken on and produced by Ricky Lake. The film received a mixed bag of reviews and controversy when it opened in January. It essentially focuses on the "deception" of obstetricians and how the United States has the one of the highest infant mortality rates in the industrialized world. Less than 1 percent of Americans use a midwife. In Europe, that number is 1 out of every 3 births. Those statistics alone were surprising to me, considering many people in this country consider midwives to be, as the film described it, "an old lady who brings a rolled up towel for the mother to bite down on." However, this is not the case. The organization featured employed midwives who were not only certified as such, but many had nursing degrees and had worked in traditional labor rooms for several years before becoming midwives. Another fascinating statistic was the huge increase in cesarean sections in the US: almost 40 percent of all children born here do not enter the world through vaginal delivery.

But despite the clear agenda of the film, the thing that surprised me the most was the actual footage of several different home births. I'm used to the "Father of the Bride: II" images of childbirth, the woman sucking on ice chips who is definitely sweating and in pain, but still able to carry on conversation and give her father friendly advice. I know this is extremely idealized, but at the same time, how many of us have ever seen what birth looks like in its natural state, without induced contractions or fetal monitors or eight doctors buzzing around in sea foam green smocks? The footage was both revolting and fascinating. Women were walking around their homes, often completely naked, moaning and swearing and just being in general states of agony. (And not gonna lie, the image of watching a baby's head literally pop out of a woman is probably the most terrifying thing I've ever seen. I didn't take health class in high school, so I was spared the infamous birthing video.)

I will always remember when at one point in 10th grade language arts when Kim Maldonado said bearing the responsibility of giving birth is the greatest honor she could have received; for her it was a blessing, not a burden. The film also talked a lot about the rite of passage of becoming a mother, and the euphoria that comes from holding your labor pains, literally, against your chest for the first time. I just hope when and if that day comes I can remember the blessing part, rather than what an episode of Gilmore Girls described as "doing the splits over a pile of dynamite."