The Birth Reborn (O Renascimento do Parto)

Becoming a mother was my first concern.

How she'd be born didn't really matter.

I wanted her to be healthy.

I prepared myself for a natural birth

doing yoga and talking to people who had already had a normal birth.

But today I'm aware I didn't have any knowledge

of the physiology of natural birth,

its importance for the baby and the mother.

MOTHER AND BIOLOGIST

I didn't care about it.

What I cared about was my anxiety and the doctor's opinion,

who cared more about his time, that was more valuable

than my daughter's life.

When I went to the doctor, with the report of a cord loop,

he said: "She has an umbilical cord loop around her neck

and that may kill your baby."

When a mother hears that,

if she isn't prepared,

and has never heard about it,

she says to the doctor: "What do I do?"

and he said: "Let's schedule a C-section to prevent it."

I was 38 weeks and two days pregnant

and it was scheduled for the next day.

Everything went just fine, my recovery was nice,

the baby's APGAR was good.

So, to me, it had been a perfect delivery.

My daughter was fine.

When I got pregnant with my second daughter,

she was three years old,

I showed what it was like to have a baby in the belly and to be born.

And I played the video from the day she was born.

And we were both shocked, though I had seen the video before.

But that moment touched me because she kept asking:

"Mom, why am I alone? I was born and there's nobody with me."

She was, as she said it herself, abandoned.

She didn't use these words, but it was something like:

"You left me alone, mom. Why? I was in your belly and now I'm alone.

Where are you, mom? Where's dad?"

I saw my daughter come out of me, the way she was taken out,

being shown very quickly to me by a pediatrician

who didn't let her come close to me.

I asked them to untie me, but they didn't.

After watching the video I could see the way they had treated her.

Going through several procedures that I consider highly unnecessary.

It was cold, there was a bright light in her eyes.

She was crying.

Besides being brutally taken out,

she had to endure all that in her first minute.

Then, I made up my mind:

"My next daughter will be born the most natural way possible.

This is not going to happen again."

And I sought for information

to know why,

and what I could do, so that my child could be born well,

and I found it.

BIRTH REBORN

A FILM BY ERICA DE PAULA AND EDUARDO CHAUVET

We are lucky to be dealing with an issue

that has to do with everyone.

Everyone was born

and most people'll desire to have a child.

So this subject is related to the whole society.

DOCTOR AND RESEARCHER

There are stories that child births in pre-agricultural civilizations

were much simpler and faster.

The way childbirth is assisted

in contemporary industrialized societies

is a quite new event

if we take into consideration the time we have been on Earth.

Childbirth was something absolutely of women among women.

From that time on, we've had several changes.

We've had great technological breakthroughs,

the entrance of the doctor in the childbirth scenario

and, of course, when we place women inside a hospital,

two other things come historically:

horizontal delivery and episiotomy.

EPISIOTOMY

When men got into the sacred and hidden universe of birth

ended up bringing along, with the lights of reasoning,

a shift in the models and paradigms of childbirth care.

Not long ago, the majority of babies were delivered at home,

attended by people from the community and by women.

Of course, back then…

OBSTETRIC NURSE

…if there was a problem, mother and baby'd die.

But not anymore, because we can combine what science has acquired

and what popular knowledge brings us.

Women started going to a place specifically built to assist sick people…

SURGERY CENTER

…such as a hospital, only 40 to 50 years ago.

Therefore, it's very violent the transformation…

OBSTETRICIAN

…from an affectionate family event

with people known to the woman, where she exerted a certain control,

to an absolutely strange, inhospitable place,

with complete strangers to her everyday life

and full of machines.

Thus, quite a scary place for most women.

It is no wonder that many women, upon arrival to the hospital,

start presenting problems, which will subsequently be treated

with more technology added by the doctors.

CURRENT REALITY

ANTHROPOLOGIST

When women migrated to the hospitals to have their children,

they lost their power over birth to the doctors.

Women ended up settling to rigid patterns of the medical system

of delivering within a number of hours, and behaving in a standardized way.

Oxytocin, endorphin, prolactin and even adrenalin

are fundamental to the bonding phenomenon

between the mother and child.

These are extremely important hormones

that were molded in the birth process

in a very subtle way.

VITAMIN C

OXYTOCIN

We can't give birth like our mothers used to.

My mother and my grandmother had three normal deliveries.

Anyway, we ask ourselves…

MOTHER AND PUBLIC MANAGER

…what is happening with our bodies, with our history?

That we can't do anymore what should be normal,

what other mammals, other animals do.

The childbirth care model in Brazil,

highly technology-oriented,

has slowly created the culture of cesareans

as the most comfortable way of birth…

MANAGER OF THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH

…perhaps more suitable to this consumer society.

The world today is prone to put you into an OR for a C-section.

That's a fact.

Today, childbirth in Brazil has become a surgical procedure

instead of a physiological event.

Everyone sees delivery as a surgery…

OBSTETRICIAN

…the doctor, the patient, the hospital.

The Brazilian health system is ineffective, right?

Even private health insurance can't assist the way it should.

In regard to pregnant patients, it is increasingly true.

Nowadays, with prenatal appointments lasting 15 minutes,

you can't even clarify your doubts.

In 15 minutes you lie down,

get your blood pressure checked and listen to your baby.

But how can a doctor afford to keep his office open

with a 15-dollar fee?

We are all taxpayers and we are paying…

EPIDEMIOLOGIST

…for an assistance which is either inappropriate

or endangers the lives of women and babies.

Nowadays, our cesarean rate, to our sorrow, has exceeded 50%.

We have a 52% cesarean rate in Brazil.

There is a cultural and economical logic to this.

There's a reason for that.

The patient has this thinking that a C-section is more controlled,

less risky, that it does not carry any risks,

that it will save the baby.

The doctor, despite having learned that vaginal birth is safe,

good for the mother and baby,

ends up believing in some of this false truth

that a C-section is safer.

THE INDUSTRY OF BIRTH

I was very young. I was 22, 23 years old.

And I wasn't aware of this world of C-sections.

I thought it was possible to have a normal birth.

MOTHER AND NUTRITIONIST

The doctor led me to believe that until the end of pregnancy.

"You'll have a normal birth, don't worry, everything is OK."

And suddenly she said that Pedro had the cord around his neck.

And that Pedro, therefore, had to be born via C-section.

I was very young. I truly believed her,

but there was something in my unconscious

telling me I was wrong, that it wasn't that way.

But who would switch doctors at 38-39 weeks?

What if a problem occurs? And the whole family saying:

"You must give birth now." And I had the C-section.

Sure, it's business! For the doctor, it's much better to perform a C-section.

FATHER AND ACTOR

Of course there are exceptions, there are people with more common sense

to allow a normal birth.

But most of them push for a C-section.

The time spent attending birth

doesn't fit the time schedule of many doctors.

The amount paid isn't worth canceling your private office appointments.

You earn more there than attending one birth.

And we can't hide reality.

Many C-sections are done due to doctor's convenience.

We see a lot more NICU admissions the day before major holidays…

PEDIATRICIAN

…because on those dates C-sections are performed more frequently.

Obviously doctors want to spend the holiday without the risk

of leaving home to attend a birth.

But that's part of our choice.

We chose this specialty.

When interviewed, postpartum women often believe…

OBSTETRICIAN

…there was a medical indication for their C-sections.

When we interview doctors,

they blame their C-sections on the women's decision.

They are sometimes in their first pregnancy

and get slaughtered in a cesarean,

without the slightest mercy or pity.