Birth Matters Virginia Announces a Birth Video Contest

Birth Matters Virginia Announces a Birth Video Contest

As the national rate of C-sections surpasses 30 percent, it is more important than ever for women and their partners to be educated about the options they have during pregnancy and birth.

A series of feature-length films (starting with The Business of Being Born) have inspired women to make decisions about their maternity care as carefully as they make other consumer decisions. Demand for evidence-based models of care is rising, and there is hope that we can turn the tide of medically unnecessary surgeries and interventions, saving them for when they are truly needed for the safety of the mother or baby.

As a step toward our goal of educating women about their choices and options, we are soliciting short videos about evidence-based maternity and delivery care. We want videos that will appeal to and inspire new audiences that may not have previously been exposed to any model of childbirth, other than the version we see on television and in movies, which can be dangerous, uncertain, excruciating, and usually in need of extensive and often emergency medical intervention. Birth doesn't have to be this scary, and people need good information in order to make good choices.

Guest judges are Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein, acclaimed producers of The Business of Being Bornand Sarah Buckley, MD, international birth expert and author of Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering.