SPECIAL BENEFIT SCREENING OF “THE BUSINESS OF BEING BORN”
Directed by Abby Epstein, Executive Produced by Ricki Lake

The Independent Midwives Association (IMA) is delighted to announce the Nottingham premiere of the documentary film ‘THE BUSINESS OF BEING BORN’. Released and made in America last year it is a ‘must see’ for anyone with an interest in childbirth.

This special screening will take place saturday 24th May at the Broadway Cinema ,Hockley
For tickets and further information please visit www.saveindependentmidwifery.org


THE BUSINESS OF BEING BORN
A DOCUMENTARY FILM DIRECTED BY ABBY EPSTEIN AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY RICKI LAKE

In 2001, actress Ricki Lake made the choice for a home birth after she experienced unwanted medical interventions while delivering her first child at a hospital birthing center. Ricki succeeded in giving birth on her own terms and the experience was so unexpectedly empowering and life-changing that she felt every woman should know what they could be missing out on.

Ricki approached filmmaker Abby Epstein to collaborate on a film that would examine birth culture in America, and ask questions about the way American women have babies.

Footage of women having babies punctuates THE BUSINESS OF BEING BORN. Each experience is unique; all are equally beautiful and equally surprising. Giving birth is clearly the most physically challenging event these women have ever gone through, but it is also the most emotionally rewarding.

Along the way, Epstein conducts interviews with a number of obstetricians, experts and advocates about the history, culture and economics of childbirth. The film’s fundamental question: should most births be viewed as a natural life process, or should every delivery be treated as a potential medical emergency?

The screening of this film has been planned to co-ordinate with the launch of the next phase of the campaign to save independent midwifery in the UK. Women need to know that this ‘gold standard’ of care should be one of their options in pregnancy and this film will give them the confidence to ask for it.

Midwifery care in this country would be revolutionised by taking it out of the acute medical sector and putting it back into the community. Some of it could then be delivered by self employed, independent midwives offering indivdualised, safe and appropriate care through a Social Enterprise Company, contracting into the NHS.

What is needed is a coalition of women and midwives to make it happen. Women must start demanding such care in sufficient numbers to push Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) executives to commission it. Midwives must be there ready to take up the challenge and offer it .

Over the years, various policy documents, reports and Health Ministers have highlighted the crucial role of midwives at the heart of the maternity services in this country. Time and again a new dawn is promised with women at the centre of care and yet the rhetoric is still not matched by the reality on the ground.
It is now time for the talking to stop and for policy to become action.

For more information go to www.saveindependentmidwifery.org or to www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com