As John Mayer croons in the background, I am taking a much-needed break from cleaning, packing and tending to all of the little details that are part of moving. Our kitchen table has become a (pretty artful, thank you very much) display of all of our kitchenware; we’re selling everything today and tomorrow and I’m hoping we’ll be able to get rid of a good amount of it. Whatever we don’t end up selling we’ll be giving away, so either way we get something, be it cash or brownie points with Gd.

Per the suggestion of my friend Marlene, I watched the documentary “The Business of Being Born”, produced by Ricki Lake. The film is about the “Birth Business” in the United States, which at this point is a billion-dollar industry that pushes the use of drugs during labor, and as a result, the number of cesareans being performed on women is on a steady climb. There are hospitals in New York in which 45% of all births are C-sections. There is even a trend among the rich and famous to schedule “designer births” in which they schedule an induction and have their C-section, followed up by a neat little tummy-tuck. Essentially, having a baby in the U.S. is becoming an increasingly impersonal and potentially dangerous enterprise for both mommies and babies. For such an advanced country, I was shocked to find that the United States has one of the highest rates of maternal deaths WORLDWIDE, due mostly to the (mostly unnecessary) interventions pushed by doctors, hospitals and insurance companies. “If you really want to humanize birth,” says the former president of the World Health Organization, “then the best thing to do is get the hell out of the hospital”. No surprise, then, that the focus of the film was on the benefits of natural birth either at home or at birthing centers, under the care of skilled midwives. This film is really special, not only incredibly informative but also empowering and touching. I highly recommend it (Thanks, Marlene!)

When I sat down to watch the movie again with Shuie, he made a connection I hadn’t even thought of about my own birth experience. Before I had Yonah I read everything I could get my hands on about labor and natural childbirth. I went into the hospital wanting to do it naturally but somehow found myself hooked up to an electronic fetal monitor, Pitocin pushing into my bloodstream and numb from the waist down from an epidural. Due to the inability to feel the bottom of my body, when I delivered on my side I ended up pinching my sciatic nerve and didn’t know it. For two weeks after having Yonah I was bedridden, unable to walk without immense pain. Even now I’m can’t be on my feet for too long or the pain starts kicking up again. So, after having a hospital birth, I have Sciatica at 28 years old. The only other people I know who have it are all on social security. But as it turns out, based on the history of medical interventions in childbirth, I got off pretty easy.

So I have since been doing a lot of research about midwives, birthing centers and natural birth options in my area. I’m glad I got Shuie to sit down and watch the film with me; before this he was completely unwilling to consider anything but a hospital birth. After seeing the film, though, he’s open to meeting with a midwife. His only concern now is that the pain will be too much for me and I will regret giving up the option of using drugs for the pain. He’s definitely onto something; I have NO threshold for pain. But I’d like to think that there’s a part of me that would be able to push through and really do it naturally. We shall see…

While it’s 10:45 a.m. and I’m already pooped, I’m trying to keep my eye on the prize. Our flight is tomorrow night and in only a few days, Gd willing, we will be arriving home to the Cape. Aside from selling our stuff and wrapping up packing, there is not much else to do. For now, I will just take it one step, one minute at a time. Now to get myself off the couch.