I flew into Austin opening night, September 22, with Hurricane Rita predicted to slam into Houston and for Austin to get the effects of the hurricane on Saturday night and Sunday, the final two nights of BIRTH’s 4-day run at The Vortex Repertory Theatre! Thankfully, Austin (and Houston) were spared the worst of Hurricane Rita...the weather was 100 degrees, humid and sunny in Austin for all 4 days.
Opening night, September 22, was packed with a mostly local crowd (as opposed to Saturday night, when the theatre went beyond-capacity with a crowd composed of mostly Lamaze educators from the Lamaze International conference in Austin that weekend). It was such a thrill to see the first full production of my play! The actors were excellent and the director did a great job staging the play. Can you believe 6 of the 7 actresses had not given birth? And neither had the director! Really, I’ve found it doesn’t matter. The actresses rehearsed for 2.5 months before opening night and spent 2 intense rehearsals with a local midwife who worked with them on their labor sounds. Every actress mentioned this as the highlight of their preparation for the play.
“When the midwife came to our rehearsal,” said Content Love Knowles, who played Janet in the play, “She started making all these different birth sounds. Some were real quiet. We were all like, what was that sound? Birth can be quiet? You mean, it’s not always a hysterical mom screaming her brains out? This was an education for all of us.”
There were some glitches opening night. This was the first time the play has been done with an intermission. It wasn’t very clear when the play had an intermission because an announcement went out that I would do a post-show discussion after the play...some people were wondering if the intermission was the end of the play...until the second-half began! Also each night, despite eventually not dimming the lights towards the end of the last monologue, everyone thought the play ended about 2 minutes before it did! I’m now wondering, maybe that’s the logical place to end. Maybe I don’t need those final two minutes that to me bring the play full circle. Maybe the monologue itself acheived this. (You’ll have to see the play to know what I’m talking about – I don’t want to give it away!).
Lots of people came up to me after the play to tell me how much they loved it. A labor and delivery nurse at a hospital in Austin body vibrantly swayed up and down as we spoke in the lobby afterwards.“You nailed it!" she shouted, "You really nailed it! That’s exactly what birth is all about!” That made me feel good. Two women who drove 5 hours from Dallas to see the play Saturday night also showered the play with praise, “Several of our friends in Dallas didn’t want to come,” they told me, “because they thought the play was going to be all about natural childbirth. But instead it really did paint a picture of childbirth today, not just natural birth.”
Yes, that’s right. The play is not an advertisement for natural birth, although I do think it makes a strong statement that if you want natural birth today you’re going to have to work hard to get it.
Probably the best comment I heard after the play was in the bathroom right after the show. A theatregoer, who didn’t know I was the playwright, turned to me on the line in the bathroom and said, “Wasn’t that wonderful?” Now, that’s what I love to hear!
Okay, just one other favorite comment. It came from a man who attended the play (I rarely get feedback from men so I treasured hearing from a man!). A week after the play Jay Billings, who saw the play opening night, wrote me an email entitled, “A Man’s Response.” Here are some excerpts from his email:
The range of emotion and experiences brought to life on stage was truly remarkable. I laughed and cried, rejoiced and got mad...To read these same stories in a book would not have the same impact. To see and hear – to dramatically feel — the where and how and why educated women choose the birth experiences they do was illuminating. And to get a view of how disconnected the majority of the western medical establishment is to the needs, desires and sacred personhood of the women and children in their care is discouraging, to say the least. What’s happening there is criminal. Your work should be required viewing for every person working in medicine, and at least suggested for every expectant parent...Because of your work and the rest of the birth community, more and more women are able to choose from a wider range of birth options. That leaves me hopeful. I am hopeful that the next generation will be born into a world where their mothers had not only options, but the support needed to follow them through. I’m hopeful that the medical community and society will be awakened to see that everyone has a right to dignity and respect before, during and after birth. It’s a tall order, but I know you’re doing your part, and I’ll do mine.
Thank you, Jay. Your response warmed my heart. It’s going to take women and men to educate people about childbirth today.
While seeing my play was definitely the highlight of my trip to Austin I also had another mission: to get to know the Austin birth scene and film people talking about it. How are women giving birth in Austin? To find out I spoke with Amy Chamberlain, from Texans for Midwifery, and I spent an evening with doulas who accompany women to mostly hospital and some home births. What an education. Austin’s motto, “Austin is Weird,” which is broadcast all over town on t-shirts and baseball caps unfortunately is only too true when it comes to birth. While Austinites pride themselves on being unique, when it comes to birth they are the only major city in Texas that does not offer midwives in a hospital setting. Three years ago two Austin hospitals fired a total of six midwives, the only hospital-based midwives. Despite lots of organized protest from Texans for Midwifery and a considerable amount of press there are still no midwives in hospitals in Austin today.
As we filmed her standing in front of one of the hospitals in Austin that fired their midwives in 2002, Amy Chamberlain told me, “There is now one less option for women giving birth. Birth center or home birth are the only places you can get a midwife in Austin. That’s great for some women. But other women want to be in a hospital. I did. But I was lucky because I had both my children just before they fired all the midwives.”
I asked Amy and several doulas to draw pictures of the Austin birth scene that were quite revealing. One doula, who has a lot of experience with hospital births, drew a picture of a woman flat on her back with handcuffs on. She explained:
The handcuffs are more metaphorical. I used to work in a psych ward years ago and in the psych ward there are two kinds of restraint: physical and chemical. Everyone always preferred chemical because it looked far less abusive and the patient was always so compliant after they took their medication. They were a good patient. I feel like what I see as a doula in Austin today is pregnant women being chemically restrained in hospitals so that they can be “good patients.” Who wants a woman screaming in pain and telling people what she wants?
Another doula said she is very blunt with her clients who want a natural birth in Austin:
I tell them, if you want sushi don’t go to Water Burger, the local burger joint here in Austin. The guy making the burgers may love sushi, and he may even know how to make it really well, but he’s not going to give it to you at Water Burger. It’s the same in a hospital. Natural birth just isn’t on the menu so don’t expect to order it without a struggle.
Bleak comments? Well, just so you know, I met lots of special people in Austin committed to expanding Austin’s birthing options and making women better informed when they step into a labor and delivery room. There is hope!
Another highlight in Austin was getting the award for Media from Lamaze International at a luncheon. Thank you, Lamaze! As I said in my speech, I hope there comes a day when we don’t need a Lamaze Institute for Normal Birth. Everyone will know birth is normal.
Since the Lamaze conference was happening the same weekend as my play I got to sit down and interview (on camera) two of their speakers, Henci Goer (who wrote The Thinking Women’s Guide to a Better Birth) and Ina May Gaskin (the “mother” of midwifery and author of Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth and the classic, Spiritual Midwifery). Both Henci and Ina May are inspiring in their own unique way. My conversation with Henci focused heavily on the politics of giving birth in America. How can we help women navigate the political waters in hospitals? Why does politics get in the way of normal birth?
Ina May had a different tune. Her main mantra is getting women to believe their bodies are not lemons. And that simple things like laughter can relieve pain when a woman's in labor. "If you stub your toe badly and then start laughing it's very hard to focus on the pain of your stubbed toe," Ina May told me. "The same is true when you are having labor pains. A good laugh can change your tolerance of pain greatly." Ina May also talked alot with me about her early days setting up The Farm in Tennessee and believing women could give birth to their babies. The Farm has impressive birth statistics. Check them out on the web and please, if you buy one book for a pregnant friend or during your own pregnancy make it Ina May's. It could open a door about giving birth you never knew existed.
To end this entry on Austin, I do want to go back to something I touched on at the beginning: how the play affected the actors. I was unprepared for the emotional feedback I got from each actor about how doing a play about childbirth profoundly affected them. “Birth and death,” one of them told me. “That’s really what life is all about. After rehearsing this play I wondered, how come I know so little about birth?” Many of them began asking their mothers about their births. And, for those who wanted to have a baby, almost all of them said after doing this play there was no question they wanted to have a water birth! In fact the actress who played Amanda, who gave birth naturally in the hospital shouting “I am strong!” said she just assumed she’d have a c-section before doing this play. Now, she says, “I may try a different option. I’m no so scared of it all anymore.”
Again, like I’ve already said, this play is not an advertisement for natural birth or midwives - in fact, all the births are in the hospital and most are without midwives - but when people witness a beautiful birth, which they do in this play, it’s hard to imagine a better way to bring a life into the world. That’s the feedback I get from most people. One woman said to me after the Saturday night performance in Austin that, “this play is so nonjudgemental - all women’s voices are represented - and at the same time it’s hard to not see how challenging it is to have a natural birth in most states and what a life-changing, orgasmic experience it can be when a woman has one.”
On that note, I’ll end this adventure with the words of an 8 year old boy in Austin. He told me birth is “curious, mysterious and very special.” And then he added. “I think that’s right.”
PS: Birth will be in Richmond, Virginia in January, then Iowa, and then San Jose, California. Come see the play!
PPSS: A wonderful woman in the Berkshires who makes my “Birth” t-shirts has offered to sell them online starting in November (this takes a great burden off of me!). Please support her by buying a “Birth” t-shirt online! She’s really doing this out of the kindness of her heart. There are mugs too. They’re great holiday presents!!!
