Ricki Lake Responds to AMA Statement About Home Childbirth

June 17th, 2008 by Wendy

Actress and former talk show host Ricki Lake is responding to a statement made by the American Medical Association (AMA) about her documentary film “The Business of Being Born.”

“The Business of Being Born” chronicles Ricki Lake’s choice to home birth her second son in 2001. The AMA is offering up plenty of criticism about using midwives and having babies at home, versus traditional hospital births.

Ricki Lake responded to AMA’s criticism, saying, “It feels like a personal attack. I can’t imagine they are scared everyone will have a home birth because I did. The message of the film is about having all the choices in birth, it’s about getting information and being empowered. The documentary is a point of view. Home birth is not for everyone.”

The AMA supports the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ official recommendation that “the safest setting for labor, deilvery, and the immediate post-partum period is in the hospital, or a birthing center within a hospital complex, that meets standards jointly outlined by the American Academy of Pediatrics and ACOG.”

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3 Responses to “Ricki Lake Responds to AMA Statement About Home Childbirth”

On June 17th 2008, Braden wrote:

Working in emergency medicine, I whole-heartedly agree with the AMA’s point of view on in-hospital births. The list of complications and things that can go wrong very quickly in a birth is staggering. The fact that most births go smoothly is actually unfortunate in the respect that it encourages people to do home births where resuscitation equipment and personnel are not readily available.

That said, my wife and I are using a midwife for our birth and I think that is a great choice – as long as the birth is at a location where emergency help is readily available if needed.
On June 18th 2008, uk midwife wrote:

Many of the things that “go wrong” during childbirth are due to the process being interfered with in the first place. An experienced midwife will recognize a problem and have time to transfer to hospital in most normal labours. I have dealt quickly and effectively with problems at home to prevent them escalating. I have been a home birth midwife for 9 years and have a 20% transfer rate of which none have been for dire emergencies that resulted in a bad outcome. For those 20% of women and babies the hospital was the best place at that time. The other 80% were where they should have been too. Rather than quote the rare occurrences of shoulder dystocia, eclampsia, and post partum hemorrhage etc the medical establishment may like to consider all the unnecessary c sections, inductions of labour and other invasive procedures to both mother and baby that put their health at risk. If anyone doubts the safety of home birth and thinks that hospital is the safest place for all mothers and babies they should ask the question “don’t mothers and babies die in hospitals?” Information, education and choice are what’s needed and is what Ricki is trying to achieve. This issue is more about power and money than it is ever about safety.
On November 7th 2008, Heather wrote:

I am a labor and delivery nurse and I must say that I see all too often women coming in who want a natural birth and are not being supported in their decision. A women comes in and labor and we strap them to the bed so we can see the babies every heart beat. They want to move to their side or sit up but then we lose the heart beat and have to reposition them in somtimes uncomfortable positions. Women who are healthy and want a natural delivery should go to a birthing center or deliver at home where they can walk around and get into comfortable positions that make laboring bearable. If they come to the hospital doctors are all too eager to rush things along one intervention at a time. First we break the water wich puts you at greater risk for infection and fetal heart decels. Then we check you every couple of hours wich after rupture of membranes further increases the risks of infection. IF no progress is made we start pitocin which dramatically increases your risk of cesrean. Pitocin also makes contractions more intense and makes it very unlikely that you will be able to deliver without having an epidural. An epidural can lower your blood pressure which makes it hard for baby to get the oxygen it needs from your blood which very often turns into a stat cesarean. An epidural also decreases your urge to push and guess what…doctors dont let you push for more than two hours…so If baby is not out you have a cesarean. Its a snowball effect that I see all to often and I cant help but wish these women had known about alternatives to hospitals. I’ve seen doctors lie to patients and say that the baby is in danger when its not and tell them that even if they dont agree they will do a cesrean to save the baby. NOT TRUE. You cannot do a cesrean or start pitocin without written and verbal consent fromt he patient. IF anybody tries to tell you otherwise tell your nurse you want to speek to the hospitals patient advocate. If you want a natural vaginal delivery and have had a healthy uneventful pregnancy with no past medical problems i strongly urge you to consider your options. IF however you have had increased blood pressure or sugar issues or any other health problems you should not attempt to deliver at home.