Freedom for Birth (2012) Online

This is a powerful film that reframes what is happening in childbirth globally as a pressing human rights issue. The same themes we see every day in the U.S. are playing out - and worse - all over the world.

We routinely hear about abuse of women - emotional, psychological, and physical - in childbirth, and we routinely see these abuses brushed aside as inconsequential. We see women being funneled into a for-profit, institutional, less safe model of childbirth where care is shaped more by liability issues and convenience than what science has proved best. This "funneling" is so successful because those who support women outside of this model are squashed at every turn. Midwives are arrested and outlawed; doulas are banned from hospitals; family doctors and OBs are ostracized for supporting women in exercising their right to respectful care. All over the world, state policies and the attitude that women don't deserve a voice fuel this monopoly on birth. Meanwhile, at least in the U.S., health outcomes for women and babies are abysmal and costs are soaring.

This film communicates an important message elegantly, through the voices of some the world's foremost experts on these issues and the women who live these experiences. It is a must-see for anyone interested in women's rights, human rights, or reproductive rights.