The other side of the glass

I found this rather interesting trailer for a movie in the making which comes from the perspective of the father. Not many films seek to address this aspect, despite many fathers being an important part of the whole childbirth process.

It also delves into the idea of the baby as being a conscious part of the process, and how the experiences during the birth process can affect the psyche (and it's ongoing development). This isn't a new idea, as can be seen with the work of Frederick Leboyer and Elena Tonetti. It will also be most interesting to see what literature and studies they base their claims on, as this to me is always a very important aspect to include!



On a more disturbing note, it would appear that good ol' Dr Phil is set to be recording a show about homebirth but will be approaching it from a very negative angle. On his website the questions appear to be aimed at finding people who had a bad homebirth experience and with a little more research it also seems like some people that were approached were turned down because of a lack of conflict surrounding their choice of having a homebirth (ie turned down because husband and family *shock horror* actually supported them in this choice)

As Dr Phil airs regularly in South Africa I feel this is a particularly relevent piece of information. I have a funny feeling that this show may be in response to the documentary by Ricki Lake on her experience of homebirth. Sadly The Business of Being Born has not been widely shown at South African Cinema's and so I can only see a show like the one Dr Phil is showing to provide more "amo" to those who are all to quick to tell the homebirth horror stories they know.

I know in my local area there are quite a few natural birth stories that get fed to pregnant women on an almost religious basis! By this I mean people will go out of their way to approach a women (whom they may not even know) and passionately "show her the light" about how horiffic childbirth is. (this also based on personal experience)

Hopefully I will have the opportunity next year to make something in the medium of film that is pro-homebirth pro-natural pro-midwife and all that! :)