Pregnant in America

December. 01,2008      
Rating:
5.4
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Trailer Synopsis Cast

Pregnant In America is the true story of Steve and Mandy Buonaugurio, a young, adventurous, expectant couple, who decide to take a daring and potentially dangerous approach to having their first child--outside the modern American medical system. What they learn about hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, midwives, and home birth as they travel across the United States and Europe interviewing experts and confronting birthing situations, exposes them to some shocking and disturbing realities about America¹s maternity care system and what is happening to women and babies. Ultimately, what they learn impacts on and alters the outcome of their own pregnancy.

Reviews

BlazeLime
2008/12/01

Strong and Moving!

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GazerRise
2008/12/02

Fantastic!

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Bumpy Chip
2008/12/03

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

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Logan
2008/12/04

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

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riverajuliana-13793
2008/12/05

I would like to share my success story to every woman out there trying to conceive, My husband and I have been trying to have a child since we got married June 2013 and nothing happen so i was online searching for a solution when i come across a comment of a lady talking about Iya Hindi Root and herbs that she use and she got pregnant with it so decided to give a try to Iya Hindi herbal Medicine product for one month and i got a positive result i became pregnant .Our son is now 10 months old and we are so blessed! We thank God everyday for our precious gift.I will definitely recommend Iya Hindi native to anyone who is also searching for a solution to Contact him .( [email protected] ) .Please continue with your good work to make more couples happy.

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Rachel Higgs
2008/12/06

This documentary was very informative, and with my own research to back it up I'm fairly certain the facts presented were accurate. I myself am planning to have a natural birth in a birthing center attached to a hospital, attended by two midwives, so I was interested in this video. I enjoyed watching it for the most part.That being said, it is incredibly biased. The entire film basically demonizes hospitals and doctors - specifically OBGYNs, hospital births, c-sections, etc. - and does not show the good side to any of those things that were so demonized. I feel the birthing process is incredibly personal, and a woman should make her choice based on what she feels is right for her and her baby; the movie emphasizes this idea as well.On the other hand... *spoiler alert* The film maker and his wife did not have any prenatal screening or testing performed, did not have ultrasounds, and never stepped foot in a hospital or doctors office. I am an advocate of midwives, but they are not doctors and should not be treated as such. It was very sad for me to watch the film maker and his wife agonize over whether or not their daughter would live or die, but at the same time I couldn't help but think, "this probably could have been prevented, you know." *end spoiler*In conclusion, I think this film is a must see for expectant mothers, if or no other reason than to show them that there ARE other options for them and their babies. But do your own research and don't demonize hospitals, nurses and doctors. Some people have bad experiences with them - but just as many have had bad experiences with midwives. It's your responsibility to make the best choice, don't let someone else make it for you.

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whirlgigs
2008/12/07

Pregnant in America is a documentary that strives in the right heart but falls into documentary clichés and misses its mark.Steve Buonagurio wants to document the sometimes overbearing conditions women have to deal with to give birth in America. A noble cause but unfortunately poor timing sets this documentary back. It comes right on the heels of Ricki Lake's "Business of Being Born" which had both a better budget and was first to make a documentary on the topic. The experts in this one such as Ina May Gaskin, Dr. Marsden Wagner and Michael Odent were all in "Business of Being Born" and have only downgraded their speeches for this version. A lot look slightly bewildered and slightly tired, like they just finished talking to Ricki and now have 'some other dude' who wants them to say something different than they just said.He falls into what I call Michael Moore-isms, where a filmmaker will abruptly and without much need to, turn the camera on themselves. In this case it was Steve working with the mother of a woman who died in labor from the improper of Cytotec. It's pointless and awkward and ends up being little more than the two of them in a parking lot trying to harass Doctors and others as they arrive for work and, to no shock or awe, they fail to change the entire established medical community in five-minutes-or-less.The last bit of the film deal with the birth of Steve's own daughter, who ends up having very minor respiratory problems after birth with the necessary dramatic-license thrown in of the ambulance race to the hospital and lots of shots of her on a warmer getting an IV. Of course in the end there's no diagnosis and it ended up really being nothing at all. Perhaps it was put in as an attempt to endear him to women who've had real tragedies in labor as it mainstreams him as someone who's experienced 'both sides' (one expert even says so) instead of a man who had a perfect birth and thus cannot comment on the medical side he never experienced.Overall I feel that this film, and even the superior "Business of Being Born" fail to hit marks that women (or couples) care about. They try to educate on the greed of OB/GYNs and the wonder of birth in third worlds but there's little real converse. American women don't care that a midwife is called a 'Light Mother' in Norway or that a woman in Kenya went back to work in the fields after birthing but this film mostly centers on the mystical wonder of midwives which makes them seem like the stereotypes that are the exact thing they're supposedly fighting against.

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