Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Sadly Over-hyped

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

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.

This movie was amazing. Since being pregnant I have done a lot of research into having my baby at the hospital vs. a birthing center. This movie just confirmed all the reasons plus more as to why I was against giving birth at the hospital. They sum it up very well in this movie by saying something along the lines of: Being pregnant is not an illness so why would you need to have a baby at the hospital. That is so true. As for the part of the movie where the director goes into labor early and has to have the baby at the hospital, that was just the perfect touch to the film that I think some may have not understood. Hospitals are great for when there is an emergency and you need additional help with the delivery and Midwifes are the first to admit that, I know mine is. Not ALL births go according to plan and c-sections etc are absolutely needed, but if your not one of those that need that extra help why should you have to be in a hospital bed for the most special moment in your life. I Give this movie 10++++ stars in capturing and explaining the truth on how child birth really is and should be. If your 100% against natural child birth this isn't the movie for you. But just because you might not understand it, doesn't mean you should wrongly judge this incredible movie for what it really is.

Like any good piece of propaganda, this movie starts by demonizing the OB/GYN profession (the enemy). The viewer is bombarded with images of early-20th century birthing practices as if they were still in use today. Having hospitals (and of course, insurance companies) set up as the "bad guy", the movie portrays the alternative (midwives) as the "natural" solution. Moreover, home delivery is portrayed as the only real choice for a woman to express her femininity and individual power.A few hand-picked critics of hospital births are chosen, who promptly spew out some convenient statistics in support of home delivery. Correlations (like infant mortality rates) are presented as causality without even discussing other potential factors. For example, the movie likes to recite the infant mortality rates in the US as being higher along with the higher rates of hospital vs. home births in other industrialized countries. However, at no time do these "experts" note factors like the relative experience levels of midwives in Europe vs. the US. Nor is a qualitative assessment provided that compares the level of care offered. Further, factors like miscarriages are not even discussed (if there are higher rates in Europe then these babies would not be reaching full term, thus diminishing infant mortality at birth), nor are other elements like obesity discussed (the US is the fattest nation of fatties in the world).One of the things that stood out to me was the frequent use of absolutes in their arguments: "There's no scientific evidence" to support hospital delivery as better than home deliver, etc. etc. Nothing even close to resembling counter-arguments were presented, making this documentary Michael Moore worthy in its biased presentation of its content.It's a shame something so delicate has been treated with such utter disregard for good science and disinterested research. The movie maker had a clear agenda and presented a completely one-sided argument. If you disagreed with home birth, you simply are a brainwashed fool ready to submit to fake doctors posing as OB/GYNs.Perhaps the most hilarious part of the movie came at the end, as the filmmaker went into labor one month early with a 3.5 lb baby who was in the breached position, umbilical cord wrapped tightly around its neck, as her water broke in a taxi cab as she was rushed to the ER. In spite of this, the filmmaker mused a month later "I think I would have been OK at home." Wow.

I watched this dreck after I had my own child and I'm SO glad I didn't watch it beforehand. I would never, EVER recommend it for a mother-to-be. I mean, come on, it's RICKI LAKE. It's not like it's a real documentary. It's biased beyond all rationality and the whole reason for its being was that Lake herself was brainwashed into grieving over some fulfilling birth process she didn't get. Gee, think she's going to be balanced and fair? Maybe by Fox News's definition, but not any other.In short: I'm sick of midwives being portrayed as being incredible medical experts when they simply aren't. At least if a doctor screws up, I can sue him for malpractice. S/he knows it and I know it. If nothing else, I'd think that would serve to keep a doctor on his/her toes, especially with malpractice rates being what they are. What option do I have with a midwife? Have her say she's sorry when she screws up and kills my child (or me?) I had contact with THREE midwives during my own pregnancy, and the advice of ANY of them would have resulted not only in my child's death, but in mine as well. All three of them pooh-poohed my several miscarriages and my advanced age, insisted I'd do just fine at home, shrugged off my preeclampsia and rising blood pressure.Fortunately, I ignored all three of these so-called experts and took my doctor's advice. As a result, my baby got an extra month of growth, even though she did have to be taken two months early, and most importantly, because I was in a hospital, where I could be monitored, we quickly realized that the baby's heartbeat was being affected every time I had a contraction. Had I insisted upon my 'natural' delivery instead of having an emergency c-section, my daughter would have been born dead and I probably would have hemorrhaged to death...because the placenta was partially separated. NOT something a midwife at home could EVER have handled!!Obviously, chalk ME down as someone who isn't going to be giving any credit to midwives and their 'birth is oh-so-natural' garbage. Sure, it's natural, and in its natural state, it kills a lot of women and infants. How natural do we really want to be? I'm not denying some of the accusations directed at the medical industry, and I certainly don't have a problem taking on insurance. However, is there really a difference between the doctors who want to deliver in a timely fashion and the midwives who out and out lie to their patients and tell them that birth is natural and there's no danger? Well, I guess there is one: The midwife will be far more likely to kill the mother and the patient.Which is how I arrive at the crux of my problem with this documentary and other natural-everything brainwashing like it. What's important in the birth process is NOT how 'natural' the mother feels the experience is, or, in fact, HER 'experience' at all. The one and ONLY important thing in a birth is that the mother and child come through it alive and healthy. However, what I'm seeing because of this documentary and other garbage like it is that women are ignoring danger signs and warning signals because they think 'natural' equals 'less danger', or because they're so selfish they don't even consider the needs of the baby, only their own emotional ones. I've even seen some women say they'll turn down a c-section, even an emergency one, because they're convinced by this crowd that they're being poor mothers if they do! That's just insane. Lake is doing her best to promote this ill-advised and downright stupid point of view. If Lake wanted to put time and effort into something, she should have done something which assured women that *every* birth experience is worth valuing, not try to place worth and weight on how they've given birth. If they did what was necessary to end up with a living, healthy child, they did something right. As for me, I had an emergency c-section, and you know what? I consider it a totally rewarding birth experience. I don't think I missed out on a thing by not having to hurt and sweat through hours of agonizing labor, and I really, really don't think I missed out on what would have happened had I gone through the natural process -- a dead baby.As it turns out, the sweetest sound I ever heard was my daughter's first cry, and I'm more grateful than I can say to the doctor who saved us both. And I say that as someone who is, by and large, extremely skeptical of doctors and who lost her own mother to malpractice.And news flash, people: birth hurts even when it's done oh-so-naturally. I notice several of the reviewers either don't have children or are male, so they really can't comment on the accuracy. 'Thought birth in a hospital didn't hurt'...oh, please!