Speaking Up...Speaking Out...again!

The third in a series of exposes about childbirth in America - the trailer is now on You Tube - Pregnant In America.

Film maker Steve Buonaugurio, who recently become a father, presents the evidence-based information about the sad state of maternity care in the United States.

You cannot argue with facts, although some still try. Birth statistics prove that in countries where midwives practice both in and outside of hospitals AND where homebirth is more common than in the US, those countries have better pregnancy outcomes than we do.

You cannot argue with facts - many maternity policies and procedures pave the way for fetal distress (those include restricting food/fluids to laboring women, restricting activity during labor, lying down positions for a majority of the labor and during second stage pushing).

You cannot argue with facts - those of us who experienced the natural childbirth movement in the 60's and 70's are working again to bring childbirth back to NORMAL. Pregnancy is NOT a state of illness....it is a state of health. Women and their immediate support systems should be educated to make the important decisions when giving birth in the hospital or wherever they are birthing.

You cannot argue with facts - the way we give birth in America often sabotages the breastfeeding success of many women. Epidurals do impede newborn reflexes such as sucking and latching on.

You cannot argue with facts - According to Autism Today, the web's largest site dedicated to autism, when you factor in a large national induction rate, Cesarean rate of 31% and epidural rates as high as 95%, a staggering number of medically managed births are subjected to a high level of pharmaceutical interventions that have never been approved for use in fetuses - for example Cytotec. And "Since autistic disorders produce an inability to make or maintain affectionate bonds or have normal social relationships, one cannot help but wonder if perhaps there is an causal relationship between these disorders and exogenous sources of an artificial form of oxytocin. Perhaps flooding the immature body of the fetus (especially boy babies) with this gender-specific synthetic hormone from animals somehow interferes with the eventual function of these psychological systems. It is an intriguing question."

Films such as "Pregnant in America" "Orgasmic Birth" and "The Business of Being Born" are not just radical granola crunchers looking for attention. We in the medical profession are sounding an alarm for the sake of

generations to come.