The Other Side of the Glass

Part One was officially released June 2013 in digital distribution format. To purchase to to www.theothersideoftheglass.com If you were a donor and want to download your copy send an email to theothersideoftheglassfilm@gmail.com.

The trailer

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Look into the eyes of a newborn and tell me differently

British Sunday Times article, referring to the non-consensual vaginal exams (and other violations) by medical students while a woman is under anesthesia:

"There is nothing to stop a woman bringing a legal action of assault. The only reason no one has done it is because they don't know what's going on." [130] http://upalumni.org/medschool/ob-gyn.html

This is also the case of women in labor and birth and is part of the history that makes birth so violating to women. It is why in doctors and nurses are notoriously numb to the humanity of their person in their care. It is why in teaching hospitals in particular, women are treated like objects and what would be grounds for criminal charges in any other setting. History. Indoctrination. Misuse of power. The insidious, ugly truth is that our current conditions and treatment of women in hospital birth is a long, slow brainwashing accomplished by drugging women, denying the consequences, and ignoring the lifelong consequences to her emotionally, psychologically, spiritually. The impact of the treatment of women on their ability to be healthy, intimate relationships and to fully mother her children is ignored. I can't scream it loud enough --- the human baby is grossly harmed in medically managed birth!!

What is totally ignored is the impact of this experience on the BABY whose birth it is. Everything a mother feels and experiences, her baby experiences -- at every stage and in every second of development, labor, and birth. The lack of respect of the human being coming in is absurd and unconscionable. The human brain at birth as billions of neurons -- the most we'll ever have -- and every one of them is perceiving the environment and biologically making connections based on growth or protection, fear or love, safety or danger. (www.brucelipton.com, www.candacepert.com, www.prenatalparenting.com, www.trauma-pages.org has cutting edge research in the area of consequences of violence on the early brain.)

Consider the last months of pregnancy. Every woman knows what science now confirms. This baby is a fully formed and conscious human being. David Chamberlain, author of the "Mind of Your Newborn Baby" identifies over twelve sensory functions that a gestating baby is capable of. How does our society then ignore that the laboring and birthing baby is not affected by the birth experience. Another crazy contradiction.

There is a divine design to the universe and everything in it, including birth. The compressive forces on the head and chest serve a physiological purpose. We now see that children born by cesarean have high incidence of respiratory and asthma issues -- the amniotic fluid is not forced out before they breathe. Duh.

And, what about the forces upon the head and the scull bones overriding to make the journey? Some these days would use this as the reason for justifying planned cesarean. I'll share a little information from the field of birth trauma healing. You can tell a cesarean born child and adult who was born without labor --- their foreheads are rounded, just like in the in utero pictures of the prenate. You'll also notice they might grind their teeth, have many ear infections, and in general, are "high strung" or wound, easily activated (sometimes agitated and irritated), and generally hyper active children. My grandson was born cesarean without labor. These children are also highly intelligent and he is very verbal and compassionate. Highly intelligent people sometimes don't have a high emotional or relational IQ and end up feeling like strangers in this world. What is the long term mixed bag of consequences of this current experiment?

It is pretty logical -- in a spiritual sense -- that a soul has a plan for this life and so a baby in the womb likely has a plan for their birth. A baby born breech also has physical and behavioral attributes as a result of his or her birth. Literally, the world looks and feels different to them. Our world is better because of diversity and differing perspectives of the world. Either way, a baby born breech vaginally or a child born by planned cesarean because of breech presentations is going to be a human being whose brain sees the world differently from a head-first, vaginal birth.

It's logical and physiological that moving through the pelvis with extreme compressive forces serves an important purpose for the brain and the body, regardless of litigation dictated medicine is forcing upon this numb, drugged population.

Of course, the human born by cesarean is a "normal" person and lives life just fine and appears to be normal. But.... really, what is the consequence of not acknowledging and respecting what is clearly a physiological design for birth (from conception forward)? Beyond what we think and say about the "safety" of cesarean, and how some even now say it is superior (because it eliminates the traumatic birth that IS hospital induced historically!!), it is not safe and it is not without consequence to the human race.

Wake up, America and get off the drugs. See what is happening to women and babies in birth.

No comments:

"Soft is the heart of a child. Do not harden it."

A public awareness reminder that things that happen behind the scenes, out of our sight, aren't always as rosy as we might think them to be. Perhaps its a restaurant cook who accidentally drops your burger on the floor before placing it on the bun and serving it to you. Here it's an overworked apathetic (pathetic) nurse giving my newborn daughter her first bath. Please comment and rate this video, so as to insure that it is viewed as widely as possible, perhaps to prevent other such abuse. -- The mother who posted this YouTube. How NOT to wash a baby on YouTube Are you going to try to tell me that "babies don't remember?" There is no difference to this baby's experience and the imprinting of her nervous system/brain and one that is held and cleaned by the mother or father either at the hospital or at home? By the way, this is probably NOT the baby's first bath. The nurse is ungloved. Medical staff protocol is that they can't handle a baby ungloved until is has been bathed (scrubbed if you've seen it) because the baby is a BIO-HAZARD -- for them. Never mind that the bio-hazard IS the baby's first line of defense against hospital germs.

Missouri Senator Louden Speaks

Finally, A Birth Film for Fathers

Part One of the "The Other Side of the Glass: Finally, A Birth Film for and about Men" was released June, 2013.

Through presentation of the current research and stories of fathers, the routine use of interventions are questioned. How we protect and support the physiological need of the human newborn attachment sequence is the foundation for creating safe birth wherever birth happens.

Based on knowing that babies are sentient beings and the experience of birth is remembered in the body, mind, and soul, fathers are asked to research for themselves what is best for their partner and baby and to prepare to protect their baby.

The film is designed for midwives, doulas, and couples, particularly fathers to work with their caregivers. Doctors and nurses in the medical environment are asked to "be kind" to the laboring, birthing baby, and newborn. They are called to be accountable for doing what science has been so clear about for decades. The mother-baby relationship is core for life. Doctors and nurses and hospital caregivers and administrators are asked to create protocols that protect the mother-baby relationship.

Men are asked to join together to address the vagaries of the medical system that harm their partner, baby and self in the process of the most defining moments of their lives. Men are asked to begin to challenge the system BEFORE they even conceive babies as there is no way to be assured of being able to protect his loved ones once they are in the medical machine, the war zone, on the conveyor belt -- some of the ways that men describe their journey into fatherhood in the medicine culture.

Donors can email theothersideoftheglassfilm@gmail.com to get a digital copy.
Buy the film at www.theothersideoftheglass.com.

The film focuses on the male baby, his journey from the womb to the world and reveals healing and integrating the mother, father, and baby's wounded birth experience. The film is about the restoring of our families, society, and world through birthing loved, protected, and nurtured males (and females, of course). It's about empowering males to support the females to birth humanity safely, lovingly, and consciously.

Finally, a birth film for fathers.

What People Are Saying About the FIlm

Well, I finally had a chance to check out the trailer and .. wow! It's nice that they're acknowledging the father has more than just cursory rights (of course mom's rights are rarely acknowledged either) and it's great that they're bringing out the impact of the experience on the newborn, but I'm really impressed that they're not shying away from the political side.

They are rightly calling what happens in every American maternity unit, every day, by its rightful name - abuse. Abuse of the newborn, abuse of the parents and their rights, abuse of the supposedly sacrosanct ethical principal of patient autonomy and the medico-legal doctrine of informed consent, which has been long ago discarded in all but name. I love it!

In the immortal words of the "shrub", "bring it on!" This film needs to be shown and if I can help facilitate or promote it, let me know.

Father in Asheville, NC


OMG'ess, I just saw the trailer and am in tears. This is so needed. I watch over and over and over as fathers get swallowed in the fear of hospitals birth practice. I need a tool like this to help fathers see how very vital it is for them to protect their partner and baby. I am torn apart every time I see a father stand back and chew his knuckle while his wife is essentially assaulted or his baby is left to lie there screaming.
Please send me more info!!!!
Carrie Hankins
CD(DONA), CCCE, Aspiring Midwife
720-936-3609


Thanks for sharing this. It was very touching to me. I thought of my brother-in-law standing on the other side of the glass when my sister had to have a C-section with her first child because the doctor was missing his golf date. I'll never forget his pacing back and forth and my realizing that he was already a father, even though he hadn't been allowed to be with his son yet.

Margaret, Columbia, MO

In case you don't find me here

Soon, I'll be back to heavy-duty editing and it will be quiet here again. I keep thinking this blog is winding down, and then it revives. It is so important to me.

I wish I'd kept a blog of my journey with this film this past 10 months. It's been amazing.

I have a new blog address for the film, and will keep a journal of simple reporting of the journey for the rest of the film.


www.theothersideoftheglassthefilm.blogspot.com


I'll be heading east this week to meet with a group of men. I plan to post pictures and clips on the film blog.

I'll keep up here when I can -- when I learn something juicy, outrageous, or inspiring related to making birth safer for the birthing baby.

Review of the film

Most of us were born surrounded by people who had no clue about how aware and feeling we were. This trailer triggers a lot of emotions for people if they have not considered the baby's needs and were not considered as a baby. Most of us born in the US were not. The final film will include detailed and profound information about the science-based, cutting-edge therapies for healing birth trauma.

The full film will have the interviews of a wider spectrum of professionals and fathers, and will include a third birth, at home, where the caregivers do a necessary intervention, suctioning, while being conscious of the baby.

The final version will feature OBs, RNs, CNMs, LM, CPM, Doulas, childbirth educators, pre and perinatal psychologists and trauma healing therapists, physiologists, neurologists, speech therapists and lots and lots of fathers -- will hopefully be done in early 2009.

The final version will include the science needed to advocated for delayed cord clamping, and the science that shows when a baby needs to be suctioned and addresses other interventions. Experts in conscious parenting will teach how to be present with a sentient newborn in a conscious, gentle way -- especially when administering life-saving techniques.

The goal is to keep the baby in the mother's arms so that the baby gets all of his or her placental blood and to avoid unnecessary, violating, and abusive touch and interactions. When we do that, whether at home or hospital, with doctor or midwife, the birth is safe for the father. The "trick" for birthing men and women is how to make it happen in the hospital.

Birth Trauma Healing

Ani DeFranco Speaks About Her Homebirth

"Self-Evident" by Ani DeFranco

Patrick Houser at www.Fatherstobe.org

Colin speaks out about interventions at birth

Dolphins