Remember how freaked out you were when they made you watch that birthing video in high school bio? Remember how, upon learning the word "epesiotomy," you swore up and down you'd never have kids? Doesn't the idea of getting a big epidural needle jabbed in your spine freak the bejeez out of you? Well, it should.
I never got a chance to see Ricki Lake's "The Business of Being Born" when it was out on limited theatrical release here in New York, but I couldn't wait to get my hands on it in DVD format. You'll probably never meet someone so desperately afraid of leaking (I, uh, have no problem getting injections but having blood taken totally makes me panic; also, bleeding scares the heck out of me. Not blood, but the act of bleeding), and the thought of ever having to push a small person out of my body always left me in a cold sweat (of course, I am nowhere near this point as I have trouble getting asked out to dinner never mind getting knocked up). Maybe it's because I precociously learned what an epesiotomy was when I was 14. Or because of all the screaming pregnant women I've seen in years of watching ER and Grey's Anatomy.
The Business of Being Born is the first thing I've ever seen or experienced -- film, tv, book, anything -- that shows birth in a beautiful light. It's totally fear-quelling -- obviously, you know, it's going to hurt, but it's not the scary freak show that's been drilled into the public consciousness over the last hundred years.
It's a documentary about love.
And I kind of wish I could buy one for every expecting mom out there.
