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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Business of Being Born, The
EMAILPRINTRed Envelope Entertainment, International Film Circuit

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 10 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 3 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Documentary
Written by:
Directed by: Abby Epstein
Release Date:
Theatrical: January 9, 2008
DVD: May 6, 2008
Running Time: 86 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Ricki Lake
Birth is a miracle, a rite of passage, a natural part of life. But birth is also big business. Compelled to explore the subject after the delivery of her first child, actress Ricki Lake recruits filmmaker Abby Epstein to question the way American women have babies. Epstein gains access to several pregnant New York City women as they weigh their options. Some of these women are or will become clients of Cara Muhlhahn, a charismatic midwife who, between birth events, shares both memories and footage of her own birth experience. Footage of women having babies punctuates The Business of Being Born. Each experience is unique; all are equally beautiful and equally surprising. Giving birth is clearly the most physically challenging event these women have ever gone through, but it is also the most emotionally rewarding. Along the way, Epstein conducts interviews with a number of obstetricians, experts and advocates about the history, culture and economics of childbirth. The film’s fundamental question: should most births be viewed as a natural life process, or should every delivery be treated as a potential medical emergency? As Epstein uncovers some surprising answers, her own pregnancy adds a very personal dimension to The Business of Being Born, a must-see movie for anyone even thinking about having a baby. (Red Envelope Entertainment)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
It's a serious and well-researched consideration of natural childbearing vs. hospital delivery that explores the larger social conditions and assumptions that shape women's choices.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
More propaganda than cinema, and at an hour and a half, its exhaustiveness diminishes its impact. But Epstein anchors the film nicely with her own pregnancy, which occurs while the documentary is in production and comes to an unexpected conclusion before shooting ends.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Passionate, enlightening and unabashedly one-sided, Abby Epstein's documentary is not for everyone. But at the very least, it should be seen by every pregnant woman in America.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Tamara Straus
A powerful, frightening look at America's delivery room.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Gary Goldstein
This unflinchingly shot picture is not for the squeamish. Epstein and Lake's own commitment to you-are-there realism is remarkable as well, each bringing new meaning to the phrase "naked truth."
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
A passionate ground-level examination of home childbirth.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
Lake and Epstein are not in fact trying to stigmatize other women's choices about how and where to give birth. Instead, they're trying to introduce an entire universe of history and information that should inform those choices, and that the medical establishment has virtually erased from American memory.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Julia Wallace
Epstein and Lake have crafted an absorbing, thought-provoking inquiry into what modern birth has become and how to make it better.
Read Full Review >Variety Ronnie Scheib
Documentary seems best suited to cable: Lake's informal, Oprah-like concern invites the intimacy of home viewing. But the chick-chat approach in no way undermines the gravity of the problems the docu addresses.
Read Full Review >Slate Dana Stevens
It's full of moving (and surprisingly ungross) filmed deliveries, including those by Epstein and Lake themselves. Unfortunately, the movie is also a propagandistic brief on behalf of the home-birth movement that's so selective in its presentation of information that it makes Michael Moore look like a fat lady in a blindfold holding a pair of scales.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.3 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Bianca K gave it a9:
A movie everyone thinking of having a child or being an OB-GYN needs to see. We've become so lost at such a crucial time in our human race's longevity and successful prosperity. Everything depends on how well we come into this world and right now we're doing such a bad job. Shame on the US when it comes to how it handles childbirth! It's a very empowering movie for women. I especially like the fact the movie covers all sides of the matter and gives as honest a look into the matter as possible. Only downside is that it was too short. More information and talking to people, please! Also, the stats given seemed weak, even though they were trying to be powerful. Could have backed the stats up a bit better.
A Doctor gave it a0:
Typical Michael Moore like biased melodrama thats afraid of both sides of the story. the American college of OB/GYN develops standard of care protocols for the management of pregnancy, labor and deliver. they are based on sound the scientific principles of research that is transparent, available to the public, and reproducible. in the US, hospitals and OB/GYN's they employ follow those protocols because it makes logical sense to believe in scientific fact. if you want to have your baby in any other setting, its completely legal to do so. Don't muck up the story with inaccuracies as done in this pathetic effort.
