More Business of Being Born

So, thanks toThe Feminist Breeder's contest, Amanda and I won tickets to the premiere of More Business of Being Born in L.A.!!

Can I first say, there were so many amazing people there.  How awesome for us to be in a place full of birth workers of all kinds; doulas, midwives and even and even an obstetrician from Alaska featured in one of the movies.  He had just had a home birth for his first baby, a precious little girl who also attended the premiere.  Can I get a HOLLA for awesome OB's??  In the mix we also got to meet a midwife who has delivered (or helped deliver) 6,700 babies.  There were so many influential people there, as there should be for the sequel of such a great documentary.

We screened the 2nd part of the series of 4.  It was celebrity moms talking about their birth experiences.  I laughed, I got angry and I teared up.  What a great addition to the series!  Again, something wonderful by Ricki and Abby.

After the show was a Q&A session with Ricki and Abby.  Now, I don't want to take away from the film here, because it was great!  But I was less than impressed by its makers.

During the Q&A, which I had imagined would be full of inspiring questions, I got to see the real Ricki and Abby! (Or how they portray themselves anyways)  One second time mommy, 37 weeks pregnant stood up to as a question.  She explained that she had had an unnecessary cesarean with her first baby and was amazed to find out about The Business of Being Born documentary in her prenatal yoga class.  She popped on her iPhone and bought a ticked to MBOBB to get her questions answered.  She was so hungry for information, I could hear it in her voice.  Instead of giving her the support and a giant mama hug like she needed, Ricki had to mention that she was "in the semi finals of Dancing with the Stars" just to make sure this mom was "actually on this planet".  Yeah, because every, single person on the planet knows about Ricki Lake and her documentary.  Amanda answered this with an appropriate, WOW.  Also during the Q&A session, a woman who asked the difference between a doula and a midwife was told by Abby to "just watch the film".  Wait, I thought this was Q&A... meaning question and ANSWER.  Thankfully, miss Lake recognized Abby's rude arrogance for what it was and had a few audience members answer the extremely relevant and appropriate question.  Thankfully, Gina got to mom #1 after the whole shindig and shared her wealth of knowledge and her experience with her own VBAC.

After the film was supposed to be the 'Meet and Greet' for the VIP pass holders.  Amanda and I stopped to talk to Gina and her precious little girl and thank her for our tickets.  When we exited the theatre, the girls were already getting into their shiny black SUV.  Whew, one hell of a meet and greet wouldn't you say?  I'd be pretty pissed if I had paid $95 to meet and chat with the filmmakers and ended up waiting in a line to maybe get a signature and a quick Hello.  But, we were asked to be sympathetic since Ricki had to learn three whole dances by monday for Dancing with the Stars.  (do people even watch that show?)  Now that's passion right there.... a room full of amazing people to meet and inspiring stories to hear and we need to jet off to DWTS rehearsal.  I swear, if I had to hear her talk about herself being on that show one more time, I probably would have ripped my own ears off.

Amanda and I watched the Ina May Gaskin portion of the movie last night and in the first 5 minutes we heard about how Ricki was so excited to meet Ina (understandable... I probably would have crapped my pants with anticipation) that she was even excited to fly coach... and she "never gets excited to fly coach".  Poor Ricki, stuck in coach with all of the beggars.  What a terrible, terrible thing.  I have met a lot of amazing people in coach.  I even met a girl who I talked with about breastfeeding and answered her questions about natural birth.  There are always ways to be inspiring and do birth work.  Maybe if these two could get their heads around paying for their peanuts and sitting next to all the impoverished coach passengers enough to actually see that they could help someone, they could change the world for just one more person.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Your documentary was amazing and I will always recommend it (the first one at least) But girls, you're not Steven Spielberg, and you didn't film the bestest movie on the interwebz.  I think all in all these two could use a slice (or two.... or ten) of humble pie.

To close, The Business of Being Born opened my eyes and inspired me.  What an amazing film full of knowledge that all women should have the right to.  Please take your time to see it and its sequel. They truly are wonderful!

-Brittany