Squeezing Orange  is an One-hour documentary about the high C-section rate in South Florida and the struggle for women in South Florida to have their birth wishes respected. The documentary also explore that vaginal delivery is not necessary humanized childbirth. That natural childbirth, not just vaginal one, is becoming abnormal. The natural become exotic!  It is set in Broward County and Date County. Sparked by amazing and blissful contrasted images of natural births, home births and vaginal deliveries after c-section (VBC) births, to show the women’s power, possibilities and  birth options while interviewers answer difficult and realistic questions that could  lead to this high c-section rate. 

 

The movie starts with Stephanie Foote laboring at her home and going into the birth pool with my support and the support of her beloved husband Marcelo Anda. Stephanie had an amazing and stunning “hand’s off’ home birth.

Heather Duncan, Gladys Lai Briceno and Alline Alvarenga also had a blissful home birth in a birth pool.

Shannon Falkner was filmed having a natural laboring process at the Mountain Sinai hospital in Miami. Melanie Czerniejewski first and second calm and healthy VBAC births happened with doctor Skeete at the Broward General Hospital in Forth Lauderdale. Also at same location as Melanie’s, however with doctor Sam was Erica Rubin’s VBAC.

There are few  c-section images to clarify some narratives, like epidurial, womb cuts, and surgical settings. I personally witness and worked as the doula for all  natural births in this movie, coaching each mother towards the whole birthing process, from childbirth education until the last birth breath exhaling their babies to our world. I know them! We expend an average of 5 months together before they had theirs babies in front of our cameras.

 

This documentary has one of the mothers-to-be as the main realistic character, Daniela Guanipa, pregnant for the second time, narrating during the whole movie her impactful, sad and disappointing experience with South Florida’s health system that leaded her to an unnecessary c-section and babies separation from her at the hospital. During Daniela’s chronological narrativa,  a community of South Floridas’ health providers, OBGYNs and Midwives,  Dr. Lanalee Araba Sam, MD;  Dr. Delisa Skeete Henry, MD; Debbie Marin, LM; P. Fadwah Halaby, CNM; and  the marriage and family therapist Annett Bevee-Akyurek, PHD, LMFT, LMHC, NCC, PT., supported her experience as a general problem occurring in South Florida. Reasons that are discussed by these professionals as the most leading for the hight c-section rate are:

 

1- Low priority of enhancing women’s own abilities to give birth

2- Side effects of common labor interventions.

3- Refusal to offer the informed choice of vaginal birth.

4- Casual attitudes about surgery and variation in professional practice style

5- Limited awareness of harms that are more likely with cesarean section.

6- Incentives to practice in a manner that is efficient for providers.

7- Being South Florida a very litigious area relative to the rest of the country.

8- Most doctors in SF refusing to perform “vaginal birth after ceaserians (VBAC).

9- Hospital given mothers only 12 hours of labor, or if the drugs fail to induce the baby.

10- Excessive medicalization! Continuous fetal monitoring, IV’s and other interventions.

11- Doctors not being nowadays educated for natural births, however specialized as surgions.  

12- Also Health Insurance interests and issues.

The care providers also touch on a very part of this “domino” effect that aggravate women’s trauma, obstetric violence, like  un-authorized and unnecessary  episiotomy, a cut in the perineum an that may causes sexual and crippling consequences on the lives of women and there aren’t advantage in doing it. 

 

Also, evidence on a common fear narratives like “ Your baby is too big” and etc. 

Considering that the cesarean rate in the US is higher than in most other developed nations. And in spite of a standing government goal off reducing such deliveries, the US has set a new record every year for more than a decade. Squeezing Orange is already six years on the making, therefore we lived and experienced this razing statistics. 

I definitely asked to those same care providers the importante questions like “What would be a solution to reduce the rate of C-section in South Florida?”, and “Which generation is this where babies are being born without oxytocin, without LOVE, literally?”

Nevertheless, Squeezing Orange concludes by caregivers answering a more intriguing question: “Where will women body goes in the future? One in witch vaginal birth as organs, hormones, and DNA memory doesn’t remember to create life or just become absolute?