A Clear Road to Birth

A Clear Road to Birth A video produced and edited by Judy Seaman (2000), 56 minutes, VHS only. Distributed by Freestone, 40 North State Street, Joseph, UT 84739; http://www.freestone.org.

This remarkable and revolutionary video takes us on a journey not heretofore shared in the visual realm. It documents the unassisted childbirth movement, including how it came into existence in the 1950s and continues to grow, along with the particular experiences of several trailblazing mothers who have given birth without assistance from other than immediate family members.

Laura Shanley wrote a book entitled Unassisted Childbirth in 1994 and was the catalyst for this movement. She became a source of information for other women who felt a deep desire to birth by themselves. The mothers who participated in this documentary sought the help of Laura between 1999 and 2000. Most of them had previously experienced births either in a hospital setting or with a midwife. Some of them were motivated towards unassisted birth by unsatisfactory experiences of previous births and some by easy births that did not require any assistance.

We are witnesses to the most intimate and sacred moments of several births, including some in water. The opening already prepares us for the beauty that will follow throughout the film. We see a mother, who is on all fours and giving voice to soft expressive sounds, anticipating the emergence of her...