Beautiful Births (2014) User Reviews

very informative & entertaining

[jessicanicole0803 · 10/10 · 27 December 2014]

Kept my interest and kept me engaged the whole time. I loved it. Well put together. I highly recommend this film to all expectant parents and all women who at some point plan to have children or who already have. This film is about letting women know what different choices they have available which is something we're all entitled to know anyway but sadly, the information is not always made readily available to us. This film does a great job with relaying that information. I learned so much! Great film. Two thumbs up all the way! Oh, and I loved the images too. These are not the typical images we're used to seeing with relation to childbirth so it's nice to see women in labor who don't look like they're in distress and miserable. The images in this film make childbirth look a lot less scary of an ordeal than what the shows on TV portray birth as. It's something we can all relate to, hearing real stories told from real women and honest answers in an important discussion that needs to be brought up to the mainstream. Great work,ladies.

Consumer review of Beautiful Births

[beautifulbirths-document · 10/10 · 27 December 2014]

I'd give this two thumbs up. It is very thorough and touches upon some key points to get a very important discussion started. I watched an interview with the filmmaker Jacqui Blue on Progressive Parenting Network's YouTube channel where she even said that this film was not an end all on the subject but there's still more to explore. And that may be true however, this film did a very good job at getting the topics brought up. What is a birth center? What do they look like on the inside? This is something many don't know until they see it for themselves. With this film you can see that and see the stark difference in a birth center compared to a hospital room. There's also the fact that in this film they talk about the importance of diet during pregnancy and why. I haven't seen that in any other pregnancy or birth film/TV show yet. The women speaking in the film come across very informed and caring, you can tell this is a subject that matters to them on an deeper level, not just a profession to make money. And the three women who share their birth stories, I felt like they were so courageous to share such an intimate experience with the whole world like that. Wow. It was amazing to hear the differences in the births. First they share their hospital births then their out of hospital births towards the close of the film and you can even see the differences in how they look when talking about the different births. Very good job on this one. I will highly recommend it to everyone. I work in the hospital L&D units in the USA and I gave birth at home as did every other woman in my family. I strive to make birth a better experience in the system I work in for those who are high risk or feel like they have no choice but to give birth in a hospital and this film lets women know they have choices and actually shows them, talks to them about it, answers the most common questions about the concerns people have about childbirth at home or at a birth center. I love this film. The images captured by Jackie Korpela/Starry Eyes Photography are also absolutely stunning. I hope that these will become the types of images that women world wide with associate in their minds when they think of childbirth. Kudos! Good job to Jacqui Blue & crew!

An honest review of Beautiful Births: an informational documentary

[SueClarke090 · 10/10 · 17 February 2015]

I really liked this movie. I am glad I ordered the DVD and I've recommended it to a few friends/co-workers already. So I thought I'd come and write a review here for anyone who is thinking about seeing it. I think this movie is really important for people, not just women, but men too and especially those who work in women's health care. And here's why. Because never before have I seen a documentary about pregnancy and birth talk about the significance of diet during pregnancy. I work in nutrition care and study human health sciences. I am thrilled to see this subject touched upon and discussed in a non judgmental way, easily explained by Jackie Korpela, one of the interviewee's in the film. The film also provides links to where you can find more information and continue looking into that, which is also a mega important tip and one of the invaluable things that sets this film apart and high above films like Pregnant in America, Orgasmic Birth and Business of Being Born. I've seen all of them. Beautiful Births does a much better job because it's tone is more friendly and peaceful with less aggression and hostility towards the medical community. Beautiful Births does still make a stark contrast between hospital births and birth center or home births by way of comparative stories by three women who gave birth in the hospital and then out of the hospital. The images in the film are graphic but tastefully done. There is nothing obscene and many of the laboring photos are actually quite stunning. It makes me want to go give birth again just to have my partner in the water with me sharing that very special and intimate moment when our child is born. Beautiful Births really does paint a picture of labor and birth being a beautiful and loving experience, rather than a painful, dreadful medical experience that we have become so used to seeing. I not only want to see Beautiful Births spread it's wings far and wide (because that's what a film like this deserves) but I also want to see more films like it. One of the things I love the most is that it is real. The women in the movie aren't celebrities or high profile people. They are real people telling their real stories and real birth workers talking to you in a film the way they would talk to anyone coming to them, it's set apart by it's real and raw approach instead of all that Hollywood special effects fake-ness we've come to expect from filmmakers these days, Beautiful Births and Jacqui Blue gave me a movie that is refreshing and have made a fan out of me. My biggest complaint about the film would be the "original score". The music/ambient background noise sets the film well, like when it's supposed to be uplifting vs sad but the tones themselves? Maybe get a different sound guy next time, or the guy who did the closing classical music score to score the whole thing next time but otherwise, no complaints, only more cheerleading for this amazing movie.

What I thought of Beautiful Births

[arielwarm93 · 10/10 · 28 September 2014]

I had the pleasure of seeing Beautiful Births. Prior to seeing it I had no idea that what happens hospitals. I did not realize it was so bad. Women are pretty much striped for their rights. Unless the women is persistent. As I watched, I thought to myself do I really want this? Do I want to be told what to do? No. I do not. When the time comes for me to have a child, I want options. I want to feel relaxed. Not tense. The film taught me that. It showed me the beauty of a natural birth. Hearing these women tell their stories, really touched my heart. The film gives something great. Awareness. Some people are aware of what a natural birth is, but somehow do not want one.It's hard to wrap my head around that one. I hope to see more films like this in the future.

Beautiful Film!

[theandreaboone · 9/10 · 18 June 2015]

Beautiful Births = YES! I've waited for a film like this to be made. Very very well done. I am a doula and I will recommend this film to my clients from now on. I just heard about it and had to check it out. I'm glad I did. I work with women who use midwives and traditional OB/GYN's. I attend hospital births and out of hospital births.

So here's my critique: We see a lot of fear tactics in "reality shows" that depict birth, including (and especially!!!) the shows on mainstream networks in America like TLC and PBS - there is such an over use of medical interventions that are in most cases, not needed. Everyone I know personally who is trained in birth is outraged by those shows and boycotts them. One Born Every Minute and A Baby Story are two of the most hated among us. When Ricki Lake came out with The Business of Being Born - it did open a dialog that led many women to consider midwives and doula care. It did not do itself justice with how their film ended. They tried to make up for it with More Business of Being Born but I was over Ricki Lake and Abby Epstien by that point... when I sat down and watched Beautiful Births this morning, I enjoyed every minute of it.

This film flowed really well from opening to close. Beautiful Births is full of information and facts that every women should have regardless of who her care provider is. I like that this film doesn't push the agenda of anti hospital - it just offers an alternative for those who aren't or weren't happy with hospital birthing and would like to know what other choices they have and of course the more natural option is appealing to many. There's a great portion of the film that talks about diet and nutrition which you won't see in any other programming about childbirth and I know that most doctors won't tell you this stuff either. They will let you get sick with gestational diabetes because you do have to remember that to your doctor - this is a business and you are a client for them to get as much money out of as possible. If you're healthy and all goes smoothly, your doctor doesn't make as much money. Watch The Business of Being Born to fully understand this. They have doctors who will even say stuff along those lines. However - Beautiful Births doesn't have doctors talking - they have midwives and doulas and women who have given birth both ways talking about their experiences.

My favorite parts: I loved when Ashley talked about how she got her breech baby to flip and the doctors were baffled. The beautiful images of childbirth. This film left me with the feeling of wanting to get pregnant just to experience it all again. But my kids are all teens so instead I'll just recommend to my clients.

Great job!