As a former filmmaker and forever film-lover, moving pictures speak deeply into my heart. We live in a culture flooded with images and these have a powerful effect in us.
During pregnancy, when you're particularly sensitive, the stories you hear and movies you watch work their way into your big picture of birth and can have a deeper impact on you than learning all the science and anatomy of birth.
Taking that into consideration, these 3 movies are my favorite suggestions for people planning a home birth (arranged in my recommended order for watching):
1. WHY NOT HOME?
When you're considering choosing home birth, you will almost always confront some backlash. It often comes from people who genuinely care about your wellbeing, although some people are just nosy. Why Not Home? offers a very well-rounded perspective on the safety of choosing home birth coming from an unexpected source: nurses, doctors and midwives who attend birth in the hospital. This movie is great to watch with a partner if either one or both of you are on the fence about home birth. Learn more in their official website.
During pregnancy, when you're particularly sensitive, the stories you hear and movies you watch work their way into your big picture of birth and can have a deeper impact on you than learning all the science and anatomy of birth.
Taking that into consideration, these 3 movies are my favorite suggestions for people planning a home birth (arranged in my recommended order for watching):
1. WHY NOT HOME?
When you're considering choosing home birth, you will almost always confront some backlash. It often comes from people who genuinely care about your wellbeing, although some people are just nosy. Why Not Home? offers a very well-rounded perspective on the safety of choosing home birth coming from an unexpected source: nurses, doctors and midwives who attend birth in the hospital. This movie is great to watch with a partner if either one or both of you are on the fence about home birth. Learn more in their official website.
2. LOBA FILM
Some cultural perspective. I love this movie because it takes us to see a wider picture of birth. Taking place in Europe and Latin America, it tracks down the indigenous roots of midwifery and parallels it with our fast-speed world of rushing, worrying and artificial safety. There are truths about birth that most don't want to talk about. Birth and death are two sides of the same coin. They are deeply interconnected and no amount of technology will change that. You can read my full review of the film here or learn more in their official website.
LOBA from COMPACTO.coop on Vimeo.
3. THESE ARE MY HOURS
Alright, you now have the stats to back up your decision for home birth and you know, because of Loba, that it's going to be a complex journey into the soul. But These Are My Hours is for many people, the closest experience they can have to actually being at a birth.
In the time before birth moved to the hospital, most women got to witness birth many times before it was their turn. We don't have that any more. It makes birth feel like even more of a mysterious, unknown path.
The way this movie is shot and narrated makes us forget we're watching a documentary and feels simply like being there, looking at the miraculous power of a woman birthing her baby despite the moments of self-doubt and incredibly hard work. Emily crosses all the gates of birth to reach her baby and it's so beautiful to watch.
Read a the full interview with Emily here or learn more in their official website.
All these movies are available to rent in Vimeo.
What do you think about this list?
What other movies would you recommend to someone planning a home birth?
