The Business of Being Born, Birth and my Business

Wayne and I went with two other teachers last night to watch The Business of Being Born. We were mere feet from Ricki Lake during the Q&A after the movie. It was cool!

So, the movie was so great; it really shows quite well the norm of hospital birth. Conversely, it shows some awesome homebirths (the homebirth midwife is such a character). There is even a cesarean, which is done nicely and is a reasonable cesarean, unlike so many, which are unnecessary. I really appreciated the scene with all the pit orders. It was so frustrating but so real. Also, I liked the part where Ricki asks three OB/GYNs how many natural--intervention free-- births they have seen. The blank looks on their faces for a beat or two (or three!) was priceless. The replies: "rarely." "almost never."

You can see that part in this trailer:







I am at a crossroads of sorts with my teaching. I feel uninspired, and I don't know why. I have pulled away from former students, and I really don't go out of my way to gain new students. I enjoy teaching...a lot, but I feel like my students aren't hearing me like they used to. Obviously I feel it's me and not them. I think some of it has to do with the fact that I haven't worked births in a long while. Now that Wayne's work schedule will be less time consuming, I will be able to provide labor support again, which I hope will be inspiring. You learn so much about women and strength and birth when providing labor support. Then you can take that experience back to class and make the info real and relevant to the current birth climate.

I have a class that is supposed to start at the beginning of February, and I'm not ready; I have one couple, and if I have only one couple, I will not teach. One couple in a class doesn't work. I've only had that happen one time, and I won't do it again. I need at least three couples and five couples would be a full class. But what am I doing to procure more couples? Nothing. No marketing. No networking. Putting off calling back potential students... yeah, real proactive stuff. Ha!

I was talking to a friend not so long ago about how much I would love to punch a clock and not have to worry about marketing and networking, which are not my strengths. I've always hated it and felt weird schmoozing.

I was talking to the other two teachers last night about how I've been teaching for 5 years now, and I feel so much like I am swimming upstream against a steadily rushing flood of highly interventive births: inductions, pain meds, instrument deliveries, I'm seeing episiotomies again(!), and so many cesareans... I feel so helpless. I'm hoping that with the two new teachers in our area that we can encourage each other and build a community for ourselves, as I was able to do with the two Bradley teachers who used to teach out here (one will be returning to teaching in March). There will be 4 of us in the same county, so we can really serve the community, if we work together.

I don't know...I hope I unfunk soon.