Making our new documentary series More Business of Being Born, director Abby Epstein and I interviewed a group of high-profile women about their birth experiences. The moms that we filmed included Alanis Morissette, Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington Burns, Gisele Bündchen, Laila Ali, Alyson Hannigan, Melissa Joan Hart, Kimberly Williams Paisley and Kellie Martin. Our original plan was to sprinkle their appearances throughout the series, but we ended up with so many amazing birth stories that we decided to compile them into one sweet film called Special Deliveries: Celebrity Mothers Talk Straight on Birth. It's always tricky when you focus on "celebrity moms" because I think pregnant women often prefer to hear the stories of "real people." But the women we interviewed were so unexpectedly brave and honest in sharing their fears and triumphs that we felt their stories would be inspiring to all expectant mothers.
Nobody has ever asked these women about the details of their births because the media seems to focus exclusively on celebrity mothers' post partum exercise routines or nursery décor! Personally, I am not so interested in how fast so-and-so got back into shape after baby -- but I am REALLY interested in hearing about other women's births. I think this shared rite of passage unifies women in a way that no other experience can. My favorite part about Special Deliveries is that every woman's birth was so different. These mothers had home births, hospital births, cesareans, inductions, doulas, hypnobirthing and epidurals. Collectively, their stories speak to the power and transformative aspects of the birth experience. On Monday, March 5th at 6pm PST, I am partnering with Huffington Post and Babycenter to host a free virtual screening of Special Deliveries followed by a live Q&A with me, Abby, and actress Kellie Martin at 7:10pm. You can watch the film on this page as well as this one. The chat modules will also be hosted on both pages.
If you would like to screen the film on your own before the Q&A, you can watch it online 24/7. You can ask us questions via twitter to @rickilake with #mbobb as the hash tag. Hope to see you there!
WATCH:
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CHAT:
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I don't have kids yet, so it's so interesting for me - it's not something you really know about until you have babies.
I commend Ms. Lake for her advocacy.
My point was that women should educate and empower themselves (before they give birth) about unnecessary medical intervention. I recently met an educated 34 year old woman who wholeheartedly believed that having an elective cesarean is always safer than vaginal birth. I am all for necessary interventions. I have a story not unlike your own, and I think of the two doctors who saved my oldest son's life every single day. I have not and would not choose home birth for myself, but I support those who do.
Besides, what can they be saying but the usual: Some probably had the full-on pampered birth with concierge care service at the hospital or birthing center. {Oooh, don't I wish I could have had ONE of those for my first birth.}
Otherwise, they had male or female providers, student onlookers or not depending on their finances. Most probably accepted "minimal" medical intervention, which meant being tethered to their birthing bed, accepting Pitocin and other potentially harmful interventions meekly, and trusting in the all-mighty doctor to yank them, step by step
through the birth.
I could truly go on and on. I won a prize at college for a paper examining the patriarchy and the prevailing belief through the 50s and 60s that a pregnant womyn is so wacked out on hormones that she achieves "bovine complacency" and happily plods along, two steps behind her husband
.
what you stand for is the continued dominion of man over woman and you disgust me with your skewed, propagandistic language.
and i feel very fortunate to have been able to give birth to two sons, granted the first birth was not all that easy i thought i was dying!lol but i survived it and had another one which was a lot easier and less painful but i do feel blessed to have been able to bear these children and that they were very healthy and all fingers and toes. So i feel like giving birth was very special. Have a nice evening.
push and push and even more push i felt like i was having that little one that turned out perfect
i cryed like a new born actuallyu i cryed more. It was such a wonderful experience even when i had my two sons, the first was really painful and he ws early but worth every minute of painand the second one was so much easier and to see one born from another is a whole different world
they are born healty with all little fingers and toes and no physical problems,this meams the
world, so to have a wonderul,little healthy bundle of joy the the world and our world to raise!!