There are a number of documentaries out there that detail the different aspects and behind the scenes medical aspects of pregnancy and childbirth, including using traditional doctors and hospitals verses home birth with a midwife, what to expect during your pregnancy, and the medical mysteries of childbirth. What are the pregnancy documentaries? Without having information, it’s hard to understand the science behind pregnancy, what your pregnancy will be like, and especially how to take care of a newborn. These topics are equally important to child birth, and documentaries like this can help you prepare for this amazing transition in your life!
This list discusses the best documentary films discussing pregnancy, including: National Geographic: In the Womb, The Business of Being Born, Pregnant in America, Babies, and Waiting for a Heartbeat. Vote up those you recommend, and please add any that we missed.
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The Business of Being Born The Business of Being Born is a 2008 documentary film that explores the contemporary experience of childbirth in the United States. Produced by Ricki Lake, it compares various childbirth ...more
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Rita added 40 Weeks40 Weeks’ award-winning documentary team is thrilled to present expectant couples a film they can relate to and share with one another.
When director Christopher Henze and his wife were expecting their first child and looking for a film to help them throughout their forty weeks, they couldn’t find anything addressing the entire process of pregnancy in one place. This discovery was both disappointing and a great opportunity. As Henze recalls: “I felt since this is such a profound change in a couple’s life, there should be a movie about it—so I decided to tell the story.”
Henze assembled a group of talented and respected professionals to film, score, edit and craft the movie in an intimate and personal manner. Executive producer Kurt Engfehr (“Bowling for Columbine”, “Fahrenheit 9/11”, “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead”), casting director Lisa Singer (“The Bachelorette”, “Queer Eye”), and editor April Merl (“2012: A Time for change,” “The Yes Men Fix the World”) join Henze in telling this story.
Starting a family is a life-changing event – both joyous and anxiety-ridden at the same time. Families are seeking information and re-evaluating everything in their lives--from what they consume, to what cleaning products they use, to the type of insurance coverage they’ll need!
Henze and his wife, producer Dominique Debroux, realized that 40 Weeks is a great vehicle to offer emotional and informational support to pregnant women as well as present them with trusted products they will need. So they called family friend Kate Rolston – a 15-year veteran of the mom and baby world who had successfully developed and built her award-winning brand, Real Savvy Moms on an innovative sponsorship model. Kate says: “I was thrilled to come on board as executive producer to help grow the amazing world of 40 Weeks. There are few times in a person’s life when brand loyalty comes under such scrutiny, and pregnancy is an ideal time to present brands as solutions to the family’s changing needs.”
To ensure that all health care information in the movie is accurate and current, 40 Weeks’ key partners include the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses, the world's largest nursing authority dedicated to the health of women and babies, HealthyWomen.org, the nation’s leading independent health information source for women, and the March of Dimes, the most respected non-profit organization dedicated to helping moms have full-term pregnancies and healthy babies.
40 Weeks is made for both moms and dads — presenting a beautiful palette of families’ experiences on their journey into parenthood. In the film, universal milestones of pregnancy are presented hand in hand with the personal experiences of the film’s generous and amazing expectant couples. Their diverse backgrounds will resonate with audiences, reassuring any mom-to-be that she is not alone.
With 6 million pregnancies in the U.S. annually, the pregnancy market is evergreen. Expectant moms are always searching for information; they are voracious consumers of media, looking for the latest advice on health & wellness, new products, and anything else that will make their pregnancy and parenting life run smoother.
Using a multi-platform strategy that rolls out today, and working closely with their expert partners from the parenting and healthcare worlds, 40 Weeks is engineered to provide a world of information to expectant moms and their families.
The film’s November launch will be preceded by a series of topic-specific web videos that will introduce the film’s families and provide a sneak peek into the film itself.
40 Weeks invites audiences to sign up to stay in the know about premieres and opportunities to meet the families featured in the film. To learn more and watch the videos, please visit http://www.40weeksthemovie.com.
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National Geographic: In The Womb Advanced technology opens a fascinating window into the wondrous world of the developing fetus in a National Geographic documentary that utilizes revolutionary 3-D and 4-D ultrasound imagery to ...more
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Discovery Health: the Ultimate Guide: Pregnancy
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More Business of Being Born More Business of Being Born is a documentary film directed by Abby Epstein.
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Babies Babies, also known as Baby and Bébé, is a 2010 French documentary film by Thomas Balmès that follows four humans through their first year after birth. Two of the babies ...more
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Nova: Life's Greatest Miracle
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ScottKirschenbaum added These Are My HoursEmily Graham
The film industry has told every story except the story of birth. Until now…
Experience this unprecedented sensory immersion into Emily Graham’s physical, emotional and psychological experience of giving birth. Just after midnight the first contraction awakens Emily. Over the next hours she journeys through the depths of her own body, supported by her chosen birth team: her husband Jason, her midwife Carey, and her mother Judy. And now you too are invited to witness Emily every step of the way...
For the first time ever, watch a documentary filmed entirely during a labor, told from the perspective of a woman giving birth.
**REVIEWS**
"I've never seen anything like These Are My Hours. Without fear or anxiety, it looks closely at birth, and the body that moves through it, to deliver something that is both emotionally righteous and visually profound. Like its protagonist, the film is unafraid of its own power." - Carmen Winant, acclaimed artist whose work My Birth is currently featured at the MOMA
"Finally, a film that tells the story of labor, birth and beyond; These Are My Hours captures something essential and raw." - Caroline Paul, bestselling author of The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure
"Whoever watches These Are My Hours becomes a companion, a godparent in this woman’s labor, a participant in a small yet enormous slice of life. The film contrasts the true glory of the female body and its muscular and existential potential: Emily is not just a pregnant woman; she is the primal life-giving woman who wishes to do, can do and does do. This is, simply and in all its complexity, experiencing a revelation - of a new person, who will grow up to view the female naked body naturally, with respect and curiosity, in its beauty and ugliness, the way it really is." - Leda Galanou, FLIX Magazine
"While other documentaries on birth have faithfully recorded and narrated a wide range of birth stories, Kirschenbaum’s brings the viewer close to feeling the sensations of birth... This ability to access the physiology of birth through film on the level of the sensory, as opposed to just the visual, is rare." - Anna Hennessey, Visiting Scholar, UC Berkeley
Natural Born Babies - Modern Day, Natural Childbirth
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Freedom for Birth Freedom for Birth is a 2012 documentary film written and directed by Alex Wakeford and Toni Harman.
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Waiting for a Heartbeat
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Who's Afraid of Designer Babies?
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BirthNicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall, Anne Heche Birth is a 2004 American drama film directed by Jonathan Glazer, starring Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall, Danny Huston and Cameron Bright. The film follows Anna, the daughter of a prominent ...more
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