Not in a million years could I imagine such an advertisement for beds playing here in Australia. Not that we’re all uptight prudes, but frankly, we seem to prefer our homebirths demonised. This amazing ad is from Spain. Salut!
My current Internet addiction is easy-peasy birth videos. I’ve watched hours of them, sometimes until two in the morning, unable to leave the glow of their optimism and the nurturing warmth of my computer screen. In an effort to improve my response to birth after my previous experience of a long, posterior labour I am seeking out the most contented looking birth videos I can find and cramming them into my head. And I have very high standards, one pained sounding moan or groan and I’m all “that will do from you, next, what else you got YouTube?”. The bed ad here definitely makes the cut (and hat tip to lauredhel).
This obsession has led me down paths I’ve never much ventured before, like hypnobirthing and freebirthing, places where glowing optimism thrives and my cynicism waits politely outside. I’m also reading lots of positive birthing books, some of which I read last time when I was going to a birth centre, but this time with more fervour. My favourite so far is Birthing From Within which is sooo hippy-dippy with all its birth art and such but which I love regardless with my dark little heart for the way it tackles issues around fear (yeah, issues, I has ‘em).
Be warned though. I have been surprised by the manner in which some very women-centred birthing books have managed to also be rather anti-feminist – eg. heavy anti-abortion rhetoric, the fetishism of ‘primitive cultures’, frequent use of deeply patronising and blaming tones (particularly about the need for perineal stretching and Kegels exercises), and guilt trips that over-play the links between birth/parenting choices and later outcomes for children. This is not to say that the more hospital-centred birthing books aren’t also frequently anti-feminist, but they don’t have a monopoly on that particular charge.
What a beautiful commercial.
It’s nice to see something like that.
That commercial is stunningly wonderful.
(I hesitate to point out but must, that it is SO interesting that that is an advertisement– that we’re now selling the idea that the nuclear family has its heart in the heteronormative parents’ bed. But if that bed makes giving birth THAT easy, well then here’s my credit card! (heh.))
(I say I hesitate to point out because it seems to me like it’s important (you feel) for you to focus on easy-peasy births right now– the mental preparation is a big part of the process. If you’re looking for some last minute scholarly food for thought, you could take a look at Jo Murphy Lawless’s work (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bfqz1y_79GAC&dq=jo+murphy+lawless&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=uV2b7W-R9s&sig=JSTbeHiguudkkAgMb3xB453Pr08&hl=en&ei=XenqSf_MBeTTjAfO_PmeCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#PPP7,M1) She examines how different modes of thinking about childbirth (scientific discourse, midwife discourse, traditional, etc.) tend to have different physiological effects. Really great stuff– perhaps now is not the time for you to “go there”, but maybe it is.)
It sounds like you are really preparing yourself for a great birth this time around– I’m certainly hoping that for you.
The Ad is great, but I was hoping to get a glimpse of the older child’s face as his little sibling was eased into the world – he didn’t look that impressed earlier on!
I love being a Mum.
You are going to rock the birth, no matter what happens. I never thought I’d go back for a second try after my first experience (which quite frankly SUCKED), but I went again, and there are two little buggers making my life crazy now
That was so gorgeous, I’m in tears! Even though I had a water birth (using Hypnobabies, btw), the video really brought me back. Who would have thunk I’d be nostalgic for childbirth?
[...] birth, it didn’t go as expected but I got through it with slightly less fear this time and a lot more feeling present, if that is even a term. I’m in the process of attempting to [...]
Just revisiting this post and am thinking about the irony: an Australian friend of mine, long time resident in Spain, is pregnant and due to give birth soon. She is finding the whole medical system, and incredible medicalisation, of childbirth there- which sounds much more extreme than our own system- really really hard. She has been scanned countless times; loads of tests, including being attached for 3 hrs to a needle constantly drawing blood to test for gestational diabetes (and she has a needle phobia); given the impression she doesn’t have a choice about procedures when in the hospital; not given information about drugs, side-effects or the possibility of going drug-free; she doesn’t think a doula is allowed in the birth suite, and *everyone* is telling her she must have an epidural. She’s finding the majority of staff so far to be very rude and completely insensitive and also really impatient with her Spanish (which is excellent but she’s not totally up with the obstetric jargon, unsurprisingly).
So perhaps that’s why the family in the commercial had a homebirth? (which is not apparently covered by any health/social security in Spain).