Pregnant in America

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Pregnant in America

SKU: F10146

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Excitedly expecting their first child, U.S. filmmaker Steve Buonaugurio and his wife Mandy set out to explore their options. But instead of the intimate family birthing experience they anticipated, they soon realized they faced a sterile, hi-tech surgical landscape, scary statistics, and an insurance quagmire.

The assurance they felt giving birth in the U.S. medical system evaporated as they discovered it is safer to give birth in the Czech Republic, or any of the other 31 countries that have better live birth statistics, than in the United States. The knowledge that a baby has a better chance of surviving being born in El Salvador than in Detroit did little to give them peace of mind.

And then there was the little “C” habit U.S. doctors had gotten into. .

Today, one out of every three births in the U.S. is a c-section, or caesarian delivery, involving major abdominal surgery. Never mind the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends an industrialized nation c-section rate of no more than one in ten births – never mind the dramatically increased risk for fatal blood clots, infection and complications of anesthesia that go with major surgery, or the 3-fold increased risk of postpartum maternal death. The nation which invented assembly line production in Detroit a hundred years ago has figured out how to make birth a medical model of efficiency. Eliminating long labors, late night delivery calls, and unexpected overflows in the delivery room, rapidly escalating numbers of scheduled hospital c-sections now guarantee the “C” in caesarian stands for Convenience … and Cost. In some states a caesarian delivery can expense out at $45,000..

What has driven hospitals and insurance companies to turn birth into a commercial, assembly line process? What has morphed the most natural and beautiful of human experiences into a medical condition? Is it all about profits? What alternatives exist for parents who desire a more human experience?.

Determined to discover answers, Steve and Mandy traveled all over the globe, searching for guidance. They filmed meetings with doctors and midwives from Holland, the “Home Birth Capital of the World.” They went to Germany and England and met Janet Balaskas at The Active Birth Center. They talked to Michel Odent, “Father of Water Birth.” They interviewed natural childbirth advocates, American OBGYNs, anthropologists, sociologists, representatives from the insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and medical supply houses. They stood in Times Square and conducted impromptu surveys, and they talked to hundreds of pregnant women, new moms and families. .

What Steve and Mandy discovered shocked them. And it will shock you..

What kind of information could convince two educated American parents to not participate in the American Childbirth System? What kind of information made them decide upon no tests, no check-ups, and a home birth … alone? .

The answers are revealed as Pregnant in America examines the history of childbirth, our current childbirth system and the direction U.S. obstetrics might be headed. It unflinchingly studies the causes behind the rising trend of c-sections, health insurance limitations, overuse of drugs in childbirth, fear-driven commercialism, the misconceptions around pain, unfriendly hospital environments for mothers and newborns, the safety of home births, social theories of power and control, exploitation of the family, and the culture of ignorance..

Mandy and Steve’s personal experiences weave this poignant film together as their cameras go behind the scenes in hospitals, birthing centers, and at-home births to explore the real physical and emotional conditions of childbirth, the safety issues, and the myths we have come to live and give birth by..

A thought-provoking, funny, inspirational movie, Pregnant in America will change the way people in America think and feel about childbirth forever.

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