The Business of Being Pregnant in America

One of my classes this past quarter was a documentaries class. In this class we studied documentaries and learned a lot about them. For our final, we were given the option to write a paper. Therefore, I chose to watch two documentaries and compare the way they approached the documentary.

Personally, I enjoyed both of these documentaries and I watched them with my husband, who also got a lot out of the documentaries. I would recommend watching these two documentaries, especially if you are married or expecting a child. 

The Business of Being Pregnant in America

The two documentaries that I chose to watch were The Business of Being Born and Pregnant in America, a nation's miscarriage. Both of these documentaries were recording the present. In both of these documentaries, one of the main people involved in the documentary was pregnant. Although they did talk about things in the past that affect the way we behave today, other than listing off of facts and situations that happened, most of the storyline was in the present. Although each one went about discovering the health care system in America in different ways, they followed the journey of women who were trying to figure out the best way for them to give birth, both with surprise endings to both the people involved and the audience. In both of these documentaries the filmmakers were trying to tell the audience about the fall of the health care system in America and the need to look closely at all of the options that one has when they are pregnant and preparing for giving birth to a child.

Both documentaries definitely used visual evidence in their documentary as well as b-roll or illustrations. In The Business of Being Born, they followed stories of women such as Jen. In addition to Jen's interviews, they showed actual footage of Jen and her midwife going on check-ups. When they interviewed the producer, Ricki Lake, who was also pregnant, they showed pictures of her previous pregnancy when she was describing her first child. In the documentary Pregnant in America, they took a different approach because it was Mandy's first child. In Pregnant in America, Mandy and her husband go all around the world trying to understand the medical health care system in other countries. One of the countries they went to was Holland. In Holland they mainly have home births and a few cases actually get moved over to the regular hospital. When they traveled to Holland, they followed the doctor around to each house after the mother had given birth. This visual evidence of how maternity care is different was also displayed when they went back to his office and spoke with people that were his patients. Unlike the people in America that they interviewed, all of the women in Holland thought you only go to the hospital if something goes wrong. While they were talking about all of this, they showed the doctor actually taking care of the mother and baby and what the prenatal care was like. Both of these films did use b-roll as well as illustrations during some parts of the documentary for different reasons.

In both the Business of Being Born and Pregnant in America, the documentarians are trying to make us rethink the healthcare system, however, they go about it using different techniques. In The Business of Being Born they are trying to make us nervous about the hospitals and how hospitals are working. They showed examples of what happened in the early 1900s and spent a lot of time talking about specifics of what happened in the change from midwifes to hospitals and doctors and what lead us to where we are today. In Pregnant in America, they take you into other parts of the world and try to get the audience to see the difference in mindset that other countries have about birth. They want women to feel embowered through being able to give birth naturally and through the documentary they continue to talk about the importance of being able to birth naturally and that women look like a “birth warrior” when they are giving birth and how breathtaking the moments of birth are that you miss when you are on drugs given at the hospital. They also stress the privacy of giving birth at home.

In The Business of Being Born, the idea is to make a documentary about the options that women have when they are pregnant and how to show the importance of giving birth naturally instead of the dissatisfying experience that many Americans have when they are giving birth in hospitals with medications. In Pregnant in America, the idea is to make a documentary about what Americans think of giving birth and comparing that to what the rest of the world thinks about giving birth and to show the misconceptions that are given to American mothers and the present day problems that occur through the regular health care system.

The concept for The Business of Being Born is to show and portray the importance of giving birth naturally. We would do this through talking about the past and how we got to the hospitalized maternity world. Also, through talking to experts about their experiences and to talk about the fulfillment you feel when you give birth naturally and what you lose when you do not. We will do this through visual evidence, such as footage, past and present, and interviewed with professionals as well as moms who are and are not currently pregnant.

The concept for Pregnant in America is to go through the documentary during the time of Mandy's pregnancy. During her pregnancy, they will go around American cities and ask what they think of labor. Then, go to other countries, such as Holland, and ask the people their what they think the norm is for pregnancy and labor. During this time, we will also talk to people who have lost loved ones through modern medication that was supposed to help them and by using medication that is not supposed not supposed to be used by pregnant women.

In The Business of Being Born, the beginning shows a midwife preparing to go to a woman's house for the birth of a child. It then talks about what people originally think of when they think about having a midwife. It talks about questioning ourselves about maternal health care. Towards the middle it starts to show the evidence on how important natural birth is and what home births are like. It also gives facts throughout about what maternity care is like in America. The conflict talks about the old health care systems and how the health care systems got to get the publicity that it has today and how midwifery has disappeared. At the end of the documentary, it does leave you to figure out that the evidence given to you to understand the importance of natural births to women.

In Pregnant in America, the movie starts out with a women talking about how she is newly pregnant and wants to decide what way is better to deliver her baby. They present the American's view points and experiences and these interviews continue through the documentary. They present evidence of the importance of natural birth coming from not only American's perspective but also other countries around the world. They continue on through to show the controversy with the medications and the misuse of the medications. They also end with leaving all the evidence up to the audience to decide. Interestingly, both of these documentaries end with the women in the hospital. In The Business of Being Born, she ends up needing a C-section for medical reasons and complications. In Pregnant in America, she gives birth at home, and later on goes into the hospital because something wasn't right with the baby anymore. After seven days she came home with the baby, and the hospital never told them what really was wrong with their child. During the credits of Pregnant in America, it continues to tell about what is happening in the lives of the people that they interviewed throughout the documentary after the documentary was done being filmed and put together.

In The Business of Being Born, the interviews were used to carry the whole story. They were played over visual evidence and b-roll. However, in Pregnant in America, the interviews were important, but Mandy's husband was the primary narrator and driver of the story. All of the interviews were to back up what he said.

Both of these documentaries presents a credible argument. They showed visual evidence to add onto what the medical professionals, as well as everyone who was interviewed, were talking about. They both talked about the viewpoints of the hospitals. I found it interesting that both of these documentarians about giving birth naturally and at home ended in the hospital, however, it does show that what they were saying was right. Both of the arguments were that it is better for the woman and the baby to give birth naturally, and if there is a complication, then to allow medical science to take over in order to save the baby and mother's life. Especially in Pregnant in America, they stress the spiritual and emotional needs of the woman and baby to have the child naturally if they are able to. They also stress how women were made to be able to do this, it is something they can do, and when it comes down to it, women are the only ones who can give birth.

There are ethical issues that were addressed in both of these documentaries. This had to do with the “almighty dollar” and whether or not hospitals were trying to get more money faster and efficiently verse natural birth that could take a lot of time. These issues were addressed in the documentaries. In The Business of Being Born, they actually talk to nurses about how it is part of the hospital training to induce labor whenever possible. In Pregnant in America, they address the emotional and spiritual aspects of the natural birthing and the bond between the mother and baby. They also address that the medications that are given to women in order for them to go into labor, is nothing compared to the natural cocktail of hormones that allows the woman and child to bond and allows for the attachment that is needed between the mother and the baby.

The Business of Being Born, was a very professional way of making a documentary. They had very few handheld shots and was filmed similarly to the way a movie would be filmed. I think this added to the professional of the film and when a film is professional the audience tends to believe what it is saying with less hesitation. However, Pregnant in America, was a mix of both handheld shots and steady shots. The framing of interviews also tended to be a lot closer up on the people then other documentarians normally position the cameras. However, for this particular documentary I definitely think it added to the documentary and the authenticity of it. It is a husband, who at the end of the documentary dedicates it to his grandmother, mother, wife, child, and to all women and children. If he were to have professional shots there would be no way I would believe that it was an authentic interpretation. Also, in some scenes all you see is a the bottom of a wood receptionist desk. This is when doctors and employees of hospitals did not want what they said to be recorded. So they asked them to put down the camera. However, he choose to put down the camera with it still on and not to cover it up with b-roll. I felt this was a very strong visualization of how much hospital personnel do not want to deal with these situations.

Overall, I felt that both of these documentaries accomplished their goals and were very educational. I found the extremely captivating. I watched these documentaries with my husband and while we were watching them and after we finished watching them we were talking about the documentary and what we thought we should do when we have to make decisions on prenatal care. I would definitely suggest both of these documentaries to people who are pregnant or plan on being pregnant with in a few years. They make points not only on the physical elements, but also the emotional and spiritual side of this issue that most people in today's society forget about when they think about labor.

I was surprised about how similar these two documentaries view points were. However, I loved that there were two different stories happening and different stories, even if they are on the same subject, can allow different emotions to take over an audience.