The Business of Being Born

Starring: Ricki Lake Directed by: Abby Epstein Runtime: 84 min. Rated: Not Rated Release date: January 9, 2008 - More Info
READER RATINGS:
6.2 OVERALL	Smart . . . . . . . . 7.5 Sexy . . . . . . . . . 4 Funny . . . . . . . . 7

The Nerve Review

Michael Moore is to blame for perpetuating the subjective-documentary fad, and The Business of Being Born is just another trendy, copycat piece. Filmmaker Abby Epstein follows several New York women, including herself, on their natural childbirth journey. Epstein interviews midwives about the bliss of natural childbirth, while pounding the viewer with statistics about high death rates and complications related to hospital births. Business's mothers-to-be agonize over preparations for their "perfect" births, and ultimately, we watch them experience that "orgasmic" joy upon delivering the baby. Then we get ambushed by executive producer Ricki Lake's very candid bathtub birth. It's sort of like the surprise shot in the high-school-health-class favorite, Miracle of Life.

Business crosses into propaganda territory when Epstein neglects to show the positives of hospital births. Funny enough, she goes into early labor during the making of the film. She survives a C-section, and has no complaints about it, despite attacking hospital births. The blatant bias only hurts the documentary. Still, taken with a grain of salt, Business should make women consider childbirth alternatives. — Liz Nadybal

Other Reviews

Slant Magazine
Nick Schager
"Epstein and Lake surely intend to simply shed light on what they view as the importance (and feasibility) of experiencing a natural delivery. Yet more often than not, what their documentary does is merely preach forcefully in favor of one side of an argument."
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The Onion AV Club
Noel Murray
"The Business Of Being Born is more propaganda than cinema, and at an hour and a half, its exhaustiveness diminishes its impact."
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Film Journal International
Harvey Karten
"The only way this documentary might have been better is if Michael Moore had participated. He'd play up the idea that you don't always get what you pay for."
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