IslandGuru Who payed the critics

SincereFinest disgusting, overrated, pointless

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Clara McBean 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.

S K This movie gives very one-sided view of everything. Actually watching it persuaded me even more - I'll give birth only at a hospital with an epidural. No other way. They wanted to show that natural birth is "good and peaceful", and at the same time were showing women screaming from pain and telling in the interviews that it was so painful, that they thought to give up and go to the hospital. So, why on earth would you go through it? Just to prove to yourself that you can do that? To "punish" the U.S. medical system? I didn't see the deep reason behind it in the movie.Now about all the talks how bad medical system in the U.S. is for women and babies, and that in all other countries midwives are actively participating in birth, but not in the U.S. I would say to those ladies - go to former USSR countries and give birth there - with a midwife at a regular birth center, and see how "peaceful" it is, before saying that delivering in U.S. hospitals is hell. My mom went through 5 natural deliveries, she didn't have any other alternatives. When I told her about an epidural, and that there still are women who would prefer natural delivery, she was shocked, that having that option, women still would opt to go through that pain and hell. Of course, it's a choice of every woman to deliver the way she wants, but this movie was not trying to give an option, it was trying to persuade that natural delivery is the only way to go.

nataliedoyon This documentary discusses a severely bias view of obstetrics and the medical side of birthing babies. While I don't completely disagree with some of the softer points made about the over-engineered process that takes place currently in North American Obstetrics wards, I found this film to be completely one-sided and quite presumptuous and almost cruel at some points.I must say that I was so turned-off by the incomplete, inequitable research done, that I turned the film off at one point. I felt a line was crossed when the film started to become so extreme as to say that c-section babies are not as loved by their mothers due to the lack of oxytocin that is released during the birthing process. Had the filmmakers chosen to dive into the lives of folks who had had c-section births, they would have found this to be a profoundly inaccurate and downright ignorant declaration. Perhaps my review of this film is biased, having given birth by c-section, and this caused me to be extremely offended by the film, for I felt that my love for my child was being debated.So while the film makes a few valid points regarding today's North American hospitals when it comes to labour and delivery, I would watch with a keen eye for insufficient research and unsupported arguments.

fwomp Informative? Sure. Gives a new perspective on a broken system? Definitely. Entertaining? Er ...not really.After talk-show host Ricki Lake experienced a bad childbirth in-hospital, she decided to try a midwife, and thus THE BUSINESS OF BEING BORN was ...um ...birthed. I can't help but think that some of this (not all) was a ploy by Lake to put herself back in the public eye; specifically, the movie industry. Although this is strictly a documentary, and other actors support various causes (from freeing Darfur to Tibetan independence), this one felt a bit more forced.The reason I say this is that the entire documentary was exceptionally boring and exceptionally lopsided. I work in the medical field (as an RN) but not in an Obstetrics setting. I can, however, vouch for the terrible cost of healthcare and some of the impersonalness of those giving it (as this documentary pointed out). I've heard doctors talking about "tee times" on the golf course and the need to "get home by dinner," so time is a big factor for physicians (the film pointed out that C-section deliveries peek at 4pm — just prior to dinnertime — and again at 10pm — so doctors can get home to bed). Be damned whether the patient needs a C-section or not, doctors force the decision so that they can "get on with their lives." Cut and run! Even with its interesting take on the care of OB/Gyn patients in the U.S., the film never delves outside of the States even though certain statistics are presented (including telling us that the infant mortality rate in the U.S. is one of the highest amongst developed countries). I would've liked to have seen at least one interview with a Japanese midwife or a European midwife, and have them show us how their system works. But we're never give the opportunity to see this for ourselves.The boring nature of the film is that it never really finds its focus. Although the title of it is The Business of Being Born, it focused more on the plight of midwives and their care of expectant mothers at home or in midwife clinics. We drive around with midwives, trot down the road with midwives, listen to midwives talk on the phone to patients, and get to watch a couple of in-home births. Then we start the entire process over again.And there's also a brief and confusing stint in which we learn one of the film's producers is pregnant and trying to decide on prenatal care.All-in-all it's an informative story, but one that might cause a few too many yawns.