Saturday, October 4, 2008

the business of being born


As I mentioned earlier, Bekki and I recently got a new DVD player after our cat, Clementine, broke the old one. After watching Milo and Otis being thrown off of cliffs, we decided to sign up for Netflix in order to receive a better selection than our local Wal-Mart has to offer. The first viewing was The Business of Being Born, a 2008 documentary directed by Abby Epstein and produced by Ricki Lake.

Ricki Lake was not my first choice of talk-show host to see naked and giving birth in a bathtub (Queen Latifah, anyone?), but I have to admit that it was probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It was a ballet of nature and humanity that held you truly riveted. To see that little rascal (no, not Buckwheat) slide out of Ricki Lake's cooter into the water was a shock to the system and one of those reaffirmations you sometimes have that life is truly beautiful. Words fall short in describing this spectacle.

If there are any expecting mothers reading this out there in blog-country, watch this film! Remember that you have options about your own body, no matter what Sarah Palin thinks.

6 comments:

Prince Gomolvilas said...

This post is simply horrifying. I hope it's a joke. Otherwise, I know your dick fell off and you grew a vagina.

Misty Harris said...

A ballet of nature? Really? You are one very forward-thinking man, Mike. I'm a woman and I wouldn't even describe Ricki Lake giving birth in such graceful terms. I would rather leave the talk-show host's vaginal theatrics to the imagination. Or better yet, not think of them at all. *Shudder*

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you feel this way. Anyone who can watch a birth and not be touched is just strange to me.

quin browne said...

mike, that was simply lovely.

the wife is right... even now, i can't look at a birth video or a new baby without remembering seeing my own nanoseconds old...

it is really amazing, the act of birth.


of course, i also believe any man who expects his wife to not use some kind of pain blocker should have to pass a kidney stone using lamaze...

Michael DeAntonio said...

Woah, Quin, I'm not telling anyone how to have their child, but more power to anyone who doesn't get sucked into the Brave New World baby machine that we call the Delivery Ward. Unless of course you trust hospitals as much as you trust insurance companies, then go ahead and believe the hype.

quin browne said...

mike, 16 hours of hard labour followed by a c-section (the next two were c-sections, too) lets me spout off on 'natural' delivery.

why should a woman struggle, and pant and hee hoo...go through l-a-b-o-u-r when your body will still do the process, and you are rested if you use drugs in your spine?

still, no matter how they are born, it's... a miracle.