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Reviews
The Business of Being Born (2008)
Important coverage of an important subject but...
This film has always left me slightly disappointed although it accurately portrays hospital birthing, which is important for the American public to see, and they should all see it for that reason alone; to expose the medical scam that hospitals pull on healthy low risk women. The midwife used in this film doesn't have the best of reputations in her birthing community from what I can gather and the ending is very disappointing to hear two women rant against the system, rage against the billion dollar industry that medical birth has become and then to end on the note of a c section... I just feel that it didn't do justice to an otherwise important film. I also feel that this film focused too much on the medical side with not enough of a focus on the midwifery model of care which is what I think is so great about the new film by Jacqui Blue called Beautiful Births. If you like this film, you will love Beautiful Births! I did, at least.The two films together, Business of being born - covering the medical side, Beautiful Births covering the natural side - when viewers watch both films, they'll have a much more well rounded perspective of what to expect from pregnancy and birth in America.
Breastmilk (2014)
Not my cup of milk...
Let me start this off by stating that I am a huge breastfeeding advocate and I nursed my own child into toddlerhood. This film is very disappointing for several reasons. It dragged on for way too long. Dana Ben-Ari is clearly new to filmmaking and needs to learn how to trim the fat. When your audience is comprised of breastfeeding advocates and we all start yawning during the screening (yes, this happened at the Santa Monica screening of the film!) and then look around to see that everyone else is yawning too, it doesn't speak well for your art. A few of the interviews with the experts were good. There were a few cook bed sharing nursing families in the film. But there was way too much "this is still taboo" and playing that card up a lot that it doesn't help to normalize breastfeeding. This is not a film that advocates breastfeeding. Only one of the women followed through the film nursed her child til the first year. Everyone else stopped at 3 or 6 months and the fathers were generally not very supportive either. This is not what my personal experience was in the world of breastfeeding. The Milky Way is an amazing movie that does a MUCH better job. Dana Ben-Ari, find a new hobby.
Beautiful Births (2014)
Consumer review of Beautiful Births
I'd give this two thumbs up. It is very thorough and touches upon some key points to get a very important discussion started. I watched an interview with the filmmaker Jacqui Blue on Progressive Parenting Network's YouTube channel where she even said that this film was not an end all on the subject but there's still more to explore. And that may be true however, this film did a very good job at getting the topics brought up. What is a birth center? What do they look like on the inside? This is something many don't know until they see it for themselves. With this film you can see that and see the stark difference in a birth center compared to a hospital room. There's also the fact that in this film they talk about the importance of diet during pregnancy and why. I haven't seen that in any other pregnancy or birth film/TV show yet. The women speaking in the film come across very informed and caring, you can tell this is a subject that matters to them on an deeper level, not just a profession to make money. And the three women who share their birth stories, I felt like they were so courageous to share such an intimate experience with the whole world like that. Wow. It was amazing to hear the differences in the births. First they share their hospital births then their out of hospital births towards the close of the film and you can even see the differences in how they look when talking about the different births. Very good job on this one. I will highly recommend it to everyone. I work in the hospital L&D units in the USA and I gave birth at home as did every other woman in my family. I strive to make birth a better experience in the system I work in for those who are high risk or feel like they have no choice but to give birth in a hospital and this film lets women know they have choices and actually shows them, talks to them about it, answers the most common questions about the concerns people have about childbirth at home or at a birth center. I love this film. The images captured by Jackie Korpela/Starry Eyes Photography are also absolutely stunning. I hope that these will become the types of images that women world wide with associate in their minds when they think of childbirth. Kudos! Good job to Jacqui Blue & crew!