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Reviews Counted: 22
Fresh: 17
Rotten:5
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Consensus: Epstein's argument in favor of home birthing is certainly biased -- but its biases are so transparent, and so impassioned, that they work in the film's favor.
Runtime: 84 mins
Genre: Education/General Interest
Theatrical Release: Jan 9, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: Natural childbirth is the focus of this documentary by filmmaker Abby Epstein and executive producer Ricki Lake. Much debated issues concerning at-home verses hospital births and controversies of the childbirth industry are explored... [More]
This movie really made me realize how cold and impersonal the hospital births really are. If I ever had another kid (first I need to find someone to sleep with me again) I would make my significant other watch this movie.
Interviews with the mothers and footage of the birth process combine to offer intimate portraits of women preparing for and experiencing this natural phenomenon that has become increasingly mechanized.
Former talk show host Ricki Lake had her first baby in a hospital and came away with the need for a birth experience that was more empowering, with less medical intervention.
Top Critic "The Business of Being Born" is messy and amateurish but heartfelt and compelling.
Top Critic This is a remarkable film and a must-see movie for anyone even thinking about having a baby.
A powerful, frightening look at America's delivery room that makes a strong case for natural childbirth overseen by experienced midwives rather than by surgery-prone doctors.
Top Critic
Contending that America's mothers would be far better off if deliveries were taken out of the hands of obstetricians and hospitals, director/producer Abby Epstein and executive producer Ricki Lake will push buttons, but they won't jab them.
Epstein's film is conveniently short on interviews with the millions of mothers who have had positive experiences delivering in hospitals.
Pregnant women -- and involved dads -- would be well advised to check out this provocative portrait.
Top Critic [It'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.
Director Abby Epstein is clearly biased in favor of home birth, but that doesn't make her case any less square.
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.
Top Critic The Business of Being Born is not overtly political. Its feminism is palpable but unspoken.
Top Critic [Director] Epstein's opinion on the issue is never in doubt and once the attitude of the film is established, it seems to make the same points repeatedly. Fortunately, Epstein herself gets pregnant, and she gets to test her own theories.
Top Critic No one, male or female, pregnant or childless, who sees The Business of Being Born will ever see the hospital maternity ward as a normal environment again.
Top Critic As issue docs go, The Business Of Being Born is about as well-put-together and non-aggravating as the genre can get -- which isn't saying much, but it's still a small victory.
I sure left the theatre convinced: It's natural all the way for me. Jeeves, draw me a bath.
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.
A supposed investigation into America's attitude toward childbirth, The Business of Being Born quickly turns into a propaganda piece for midwifery before closing on a fortuitously complex note.
January 10, 2008:
Critical Consensus: Bucket Gets Kicked, The Orphanage is Certified Fresh, In the Name of the King Not Screened
This week at the movies, we've got two wild and crazy guys, pious crooks, botanical buccaneers, haunted expatriates, tormented mothers, and Uwe Boll. What do the critics have to... More...
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