Former Talk Show Host Lake Criticizes ACOG, AMA For Singling Out Her Support Of Home Births

Main Category: Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology;  Pediatrics / Children's Health;  Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 20 Jun 2008 - 7:00 PST

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Former television talk show host Ricki Lake is "firing back" at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical Association after the medical groups criticized her outspoken support of at-home birthing, the AP/International Herald Tribune reports. The recent attention on celebrity home deliveries prompted ACOG to introduce before the AMA House of Delegates a resolution stating that at-home birthing is not the safest for having an infant.

Lake's documentary film, "The Business of Being Born," which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, looks at the current maternity care system and at-home childbirth. The film shows Lake's own home birth. The resolution states that there "has been much attention in the media by celebrities having home deliveries" and cites a headline from NBC's "Today Show" about the film and Lake's home delivery. According to the AP/Herald Tribune, AMA said it supports legislation to helps ensure safe deliveries and healthy infants by "acknowledging that the safest setting" for childbirth is a hospital, birthing center or other approved facility.

Lake said it is "scary" she was targeted by the groups. She added, "I'm all about choice. This is not unlike the abortion issue. I am pro-choice when it comes to childbirth and choices in childbirth. Home birth was around long before hospitals were taking over, and I just think women need to know (the information) so that they can make the best choice for them."

Lake said that although there are "provocative things" in the film, it is "very clear that we need doctors, we need the care and the technology that we have. But we also need to value the process of giving birth normally." Lake said she was "empowered" and "transformed" after giving birth at home and "would love for women to have had that opportunity to be an active participant in the own birth choices and birth experience" (AP/International Herald Tribune, 6/17).

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