There is a new documentary film which won
awards at the Tribeca film festival called
"The Business of Being Born". It was put
together by Ricki Lake, who as I am sure
some of you remember used to be the host
of her own talk show. She is now a doula
and put the documentary together so that
people would come away with a better
understanding of home births, hospitals,
and the fact that in America, babies are
big business. I have copied a brief
synapsis below. I have not yet seenthe
films, but I very much anticipate viewing
it.
New Yorkers had an opportunity to
experience a real "birthing" week in
Manhattan starting with the
much-anticipated opening of the
documentary film, The Business of Being
Born, which had its premier at the Tribeca
Film Festival on April 29th.
The idea for the film sprung from the
personal experience of actress/talk show
host Ricki Lake, Executive Producer for
the film, after birthing her own
children—one in a conventional hospital
setting, and the second at home with a
midwife. The film's message is clear and
unflinching: modern medical practices have
so distorted the process of birth that we
have lost the natural beauty of this rite
of passage. "If you really want a
humanized birth, the thing to do is to get
the hell out of the hospital," say Marsden
Wagner, a physician and former Director of
Women's and Children's Health for the
World Health Organization, in an interview
during the film.
Interviews with other experts, such as
medical anthropologist Robbie Davis-Floyd,
acclaimed midwife Ina May Gaskin, and
French obstetrician Michel Odent, are
contrasted with moving interviews from
real-life women. We see these women
before, during and after their
homebirths.
But the best part of the film by far is
the surprise twist it takes when director
Abby Epstein discovers that she herself is
pregnant. Both Epstein and Lake share
their own personal experiences in such an
open and giving way that the old cliché
held true—there were very few dry eyes
in the house by the end.
If you google the name of the movie, you
can link to several articles and also an
interview on "The View". Thought you
might find it interesting.
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musikmaker
Extremely EHEALTHy
Joined: 30 May 2006 Posts: 1753 Location: Chicago, US
Thanks: 9
Thanked:2
Posted: 06-21-07 13:38pm
Thanks! I do find stuff like this
interesting. I would never have a
homebirth (I had a sister that had a
horrible experience) but I applaud people
that do have one.
