SPECIAL
BENEFIT SCREENING OF “THE BUSINESS OF BEING BORN”
The
Independent Midwives Association (IMA) is delighted to announce the London
Premiere of the documentary film ‘THE BUSINESS OF BEING BORN’. Released and made
in America last year it is a ‘must see’ for anyone with an interest in
childbirth.
This
special screening will take place in
For
tickets and further information please visit
www.saveindependentmidwifery.org
THE BUSINESS OF BEING
BORN
A DOCUMENTARY FILM DIRECTED BY ABBY
EPSTEIN AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY RICKI LAKE
In
2001, actress Ricki Lake made the
choice for a home birth after she experienced unwanted medical interventions
while delivering her first child at a hospital birthing center. Ricki succeeded
in giving birth on her own terms and the experience was so unexpectedly
empowering and life-changing that she felt every woman should know what they
could be missing out on.
Ricki
approached filmmaker Abby Epstein to
collaborate on a film that would examine birth culture in America, and ask
questions about the way American women have babies.
Footage
of women having babies punctuates THE
BUSINESS OF BEING BORN. Each experience is unique; all are equally beautiful
and equally surprising. Giving birth is clearly the most physically challenging
event these women have ever gone through, but it is also the most emotionally
rewarding.
Along
the way, Epstein conducts interviews with a number of obstetricians, experts and
advocates about the history, culture and economics of childbirth. The film’s
fundamental question: should most births be viewed as a natural life process, or
should every delivery be treated as a potential medical emergency?
The
screening of this film has been planned to co-ordinate with the launch of the
next phase of the campaign to save independent midwifery in the
UK.
Women need to know that this ‘gold standard’ of care should be one of their
options in pregnancy and this film will give them the confidence to ask for
it.
Midwifery
care in this country would be revolutionised by taking it out of the acute
medical sector and putting it back into the community. Some of it could then be
delivered by self employed, independent midwives offering individualised, safe
and appropriate care through a Social Enterprise Company, contracting into the
NHS.
What
is needed is a coalition of women and midwives to make it happen. Women must
start demanding such care in sufficient numbers to push Primary Care Trusts
(PCTs) executives to commission it. Midwives must be there ready to take up the
challenge and offer it.
Over
the years, various policy documents, reports and Health Ministers have
highlighted the crucial role of midwives at the heart of the maternity services
in this country. Time and again a new dawn is promised with women at the centre
of care and yet the rhetoric is still not matched by the reality on the ground.
It
is now time for the talking to stop and for policy to become
action.
For more information go to www.saveindependentmidwifery.org or to www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com