More Business Of Being Born: Ricki Lake Offers Follow-Up To Her Powerful Birth Documentary

For those of you who were captivated by The Business Of Being Born, producers Ricki Lake and filmmaker Abby Epstein have created a new installment of celebrity birth stories to continue the conversation about women getting the type of birth that they want. The four part series includes stories from Alanis Morissette, Gisele Bundchen, Christy Turlington-Burns, Cindy Crawford, Molly Ringwald, Laila Ali, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, and Melissa Joan Hart.

The series will be available in a DVD box set on November 8th, but until then the ladies are offering to stream the follow-up in a four parts starting on August 30th.

The streaming schedule reads on the press release as follows:

August 30   September 12, 2011: Down on The Farm: Conversations with Legendary Midwife Ina May Gaskin

Follow Executive Producer Ricki Lake and Director Abby Epstein to The Farm Commune in Summertown, Tennessee, where pioneer midwife Ina May Gaskin talks candidly about the latest birth trends.  Gaskin, who was featured in the original The Business of Being Born, sparked Lake’s initial interest in home birth and has continued to inspire the filmmaking duo’s advocacy efforts.  Also on the journey is pregnant actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley, who joins them in getting to know The Farm’s famous midwives and touring the picturesque birth cabins situated in the woods.  Bonus features on the DVD include additional interviews with Gaskin, Williams-Paisley’s emotional birth stories and a conversation with Christy Turlington-Burns about her shared passion for improving maternal mortality.

September 13 September 26, 2011: Special Deliveries: Celebrity Mothers Talk Straight on Birth

Featuring celebrity moms Laila Ali, Gisele Bundchen, Cindy Crawford, Alyson Hannigan, Melissa Joan Hart, Kellie Martin, Alanis Morissette, Christy Turlington-Burns and Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Special Deliveries provides collected stories from a group fearless mothers.  Their riveting testimonies speak to the power of the birth experience, whether they worked with midwives and/or obstetricians.  They trusted their bodies and intuitions, taking control and trusting themselves instead of following ”the experts” blindly.  None of these courageous women has ever spoken on the record in such compelling detail, and, on this DVD, the filmmakers weave together these passionate narratives as a celebration of the journey to motherhood that will leave viewers with a renewed sense of amazement about the power of women.

September 27 October 10, 2011: Explore Your Options: Doulas, Birth Centers & C-Sections

This essential DVD offers birth-planning guidance around key topics such as the role of doulas (labor support specialists,) the advantages of birth centers and the alarming escalation of cesarean sections in the United States and Brazil.  Epstein and Lake talk to doulas about why their profession is currently booming and uncover why having a good doula can make-or-break the entire birth experience.  They look at the ever-growing rates of c-sections, which have reached 50% in many US hospitals and more than 99% in some private hospitals in Brazil.  How “safe” are these cesarean surgeries, and what are the health implications for the mothers and babies?  Explore Your Options also looks at the option to deliver in a birth center as a middle ground between the home and the hospital.  Special features on this informative DVD include stars Alanis Morissette and Alyson Hannigan on the advantages of doulas, Christy Turlington Burns on her unexpected complications at a birth center, Molly Ringwald on how she avoided a cesarean birth with her twins and Gisele Bundchen and Michelle Alves on the cesarean epidemic in their native Brazil.

October 11 October 24, 2011: The VBAC Dilemma: What Your Options Really Are

The VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) has become a hot-button issue in the modern maternity care system, as one in three new mothers will give birth via cesarean section.  Are all of these mothers then forced to undergo a repeat cesarean the next time around?  Epstein and Lake posed that question to dozens of experts, determining the surprising truth about VBACs.  They also follow several women’s stories both those who succeed and fail at attempting a VBAC including that of filmmaker Abby Epstein, whose first c-section delivery was depicted in the dramatic, final moments of The Business of Being Born.

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