2008
Not Rated
International Film Circuit
1 h 27 m

2008
Not Rated
International Film Circuit
1 h 27 m

Summary 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 weig...

Documentary

Directed By: Abby Epstein

2008
Not Rated
International Film Circuit
1 h 27 m

2008
Not Rated
International Film Circuit
1 h 27 m

The Business of Being Born

Name: The Business of Being Born
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2008-01-09
Duration: 1 min 27 s
Rating: 68
Cast: Mary Helen Ayres, Julia Barnett, Sylvie Blaustein, Louann Brizendine, Michael Brodman

Metascore Generally Favorable Based on 10 Critic Reviews

User Score Available after 4 ratings

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Where to Watch

Documentary

Directed By: Abby Epstein

Where to Watch

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore

Generally Favorable Based on 10 Critic Reviews

80% Positive
8 Reviews

20% Mixed
2 Reviews

0% Negative
0 Reviews

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Mixed Reviews
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Metascore

Generally Favorable Based on 10 Critic Reviews

80% Positive
8 Reviews

20% Mixed
2 Reviews

0% Negative
0 Reviews

All Reviews
Positive Reviews
Mixed Reviews
Negative Reviews

San Francisco Chronicle

A powerful, frightening look at America's delivery room.

FULL REVIEW

The A.V. Club

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.

By Noel Murray FULL REVIEW

TV Guide Magazine

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.

By Maitland McDonagh FULL REVIEW

Salon

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.

By Andrew O'Hehir FULL REVIEW

The New York Times

A passionate ground-level examination of home childbirth.

By Stephen Holden FULL REVIEW

Variety

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.

By Ronnie Scheib FULL REVIEW

Slate

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.

FULL REVIEW

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Production Company Barranca Productions

Release Date Jan 9, 2008

Duration 1 h 27 m

Rating Not Rated

Genres

Documentary

Website http://www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com/

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Awards

Zurich Film Festival

• 1 Nomination

The Business of Being Born

Where to Watch

Where to Watch

Top Cast

Mary Helen Ayres

Self - Homebirth Midwife in Indiana

Julia Barnett

Self - Parent

Sylvie Blaustein

Self - Owner & Director, Midwifery of Manhattan

Louann Brizendine

Self

Michael Brodman

Self

Patricia Burkhardt

Self

Tina Cassidy

Self - Journalist and Author of 'Birth'

Ronaldo Cortes

Self - Ob, Gyn

Robbie Davis-Floyd

Self - Medical Anthropologist

Eugene Declerq

Self

Abby Epstein

Self - Filmmaker

Eden Fromberg

Self - Ob, Gyn

Natashia Fuksman

Self - Doula (Labor Support)

Ina May Gaskin

Self - Midwife

Nadine Goodman

Self - Public Health Specialist

Carolyn Havens Neimann

Self - Curtified Nurse Midwife

Susan Hodges

Self - President, Citizens for Midwifery

Gregor Huebner

Self - Parent

La Juana Huebner

Self - Parent

Ricki Lake

Self - Actress and Producer

Critic Reviews

Critic Reviews

Critic Reviews

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Details

Details

Awards

Awards

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