Home Delivery

A film by Christine Tournadre and Anne Labro

Most women in the modern world never think twice about the decision to give birth in a hospital. Like their mothers and grandmothers before them, they imagine a time when they'll pack their bags, call their doctors and rush to the fluorescent lights and sterile sheets of their baby's first home. But in a time when health costs are skyrocketing, Caesarean deliveries are on the rise and hospital care can be impersonal, some women are questioning this paradigm.

This film documents the lives of three women in New York, who for very different reasons have decided to have home deliveries with midwives. Two are African-Americans and one is French-born. Nadhege and her husband Kameau who are having their first child, decide on a water birth. Several generations of her family sing and pray as she labors, and celebrate when her baby is born. Melle is a single mother with two young children who are very much a part of the anticipation and the birth. She has concerns about having adequate support in the days after the birth. The midwife and her team are loving and supportive. Marine has a very long labor. When asked by her doula if she would do it again that way, she admits she would defer answering until she has recovered.

Home Delivery allows the audience a profound and sometimes humorous look at women during an awe inspiring process. It captures the spiritual as well as the physical side of childbirth.

58 min. Video or DVD. Sale $295. Video rental $85.