Right now, I’d say my favorite childbirth video is Orgasmic Birth. Although this is a wonderful video and shows the glory and the challenges the pain and the ecstasy women can experience during labor and birth, it’s title is my least favorite of all of them. Whenever I mention this video in my classes, prenatal yoga or Bradley Method classes, people are just so shocked and a bit turned off. Yes, there are some who giggle and think it’s kind of funny but for the most part the title gets a bad reaction. So thank goodness the producers or distributors realized this problem and created another version, almost exactly alike, titled Organic Birth. Well, whatever it’s called, the best testimonials I’ve heard have come from a couple of different people. They both stated that before they saw the film, they were afraid of labor and birth, but after they saw it, they couldn’t wait for labor to start. They both had natural, un-medicated births.
Suzanne Arms has a 35-minute film called Giving Birth: Challenges and Choices. The DVD has an hour of bonus material for the birth advocates, and birth junkies in the crowd. I also show this childbirth video in my Bradley Method classes. What I love the most are the three obstetricians who advocate for natural birth. They have such a reverence for the natural process and each explains their own reasons. I like that one obstetrician states that you really need to prepare, get educated, and do the work necessary to have a safe, healthy birth.
There is also a home birth midwife and a labor and delivery nurse who talk about the psychology of birth. Both are advocating support, emotional, physical, and spiritual for the laboring mother.
There’s also a great video of a natural home birth, which is not very graphic-no crotch shots-and it has my students in happy tears every time.
Birth Day has my favorite birth in it. Naoli Vinaver gives birth in the water at home, surrounded by family and filmed by her dad. She, herself, is a midwife in Mexico. First, the location where they live is so idyllic and peaceful. I love how the whole family goes for a hike to the stream while she is in early labor. Then they all sit down to eat rice and beans. Naoli chows down on her food while in early labor. I love to point out to my students that they may be excited but their body is doing a lot of hard work and they will need that sustenance.
Then she and her husband work together walking around and around until she decides it’s time to go into the big Jacuzzi tub. It’s there that she births her baby girl into the hands of her husband. Then both of their sons take off their clothes and get into the Jacuzzi. It’s one big happy family and a beautiful birth. Whether you plan a homebirth or not, everyone should see how birth can be, and was probably meant to be. It will help take your fear away for sure. This is a childbirth video that will melt your heart.
The Business of Being Born and the More Business of Being Born series are essential for every expectant couple, whether it’s their first or their 6th baby. In the past 3-4 years, I have had so many people sign up for my Bradley Method classes after seeing The Business of Being Born.
This entertaining documentary opens your eyes to the truth about birth in America. After you see the original film, you will want as much education as you can possibly get. It will introduce the idea that you not only have choices in childbirth, but also introduces the idea that pain in labor doesn’t necessarily involve suffering and that the experience from beginning to end can be amazingly beautiful.
These are great choices for childbirth videos for teachers because you can watch one birth at a time and use them according to what you are covering in your classes. For expectant parents, watching these DVD’s will help give you courage and resolve to help bring your baby in to the world in the safest way possible.
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