Pregnancy & Childbirth

Prenatal Yoga With Shiva Rea

The best thing about this prenatal yoga program is that there is a model for each trimester. Instructor Shiva Rea demonstrates each of the stretches and exercises for the first trimester, and two pregnant women show modifications for the second and third trimesters (they're even dressed in different colors for easy reference). This removes the self-doubt home-exercisers often have about the safety of certain moves--especially in that cumbersome final stage of pregnancy. Using gentle voice-over instruction, Rea and her assistants take viewers through a half hour of meditational stretches using blocks and chairs for support. She follows that up with 16 minutes of floor work: lunge pose, bridge pose, child's pose, plank pose--all with the necessary adjustments. She winds things up with a four-minute guided relaxation on her back--the traditional position--with the second-trimester woman on her side and the third on her side with one leg up on a chair. By including the different adaptations, Rea has made a program with the flexibility to carry an expectant mom through her entire pregnancy--and beyond, if she wishes. --Kimberly Heinrichs

The Business of Being Born

Is it conceivable that in the United States, profit is increasingly driving the business of birthing--sometimes at the expense of the best possible outcome for mothers and babies? Should birth be viewed and treated as a natural process or a potential medical emergency? This documentary, produced by Ricki Lake and directed by Abby Epstein, opines that money and fear are changing the way Americans give birth, and not necessarily for the better. Beginning with shocking statistics that the United States has the second-worst newborn death rate in the developed world and one of the highest maternal mortality rates in industrialized countries, the film presents interviews with medical professionals including Dr. Jacques Moritz, OB/GYN from St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital; Dr. Michel Odent, OB/GYN researcher; and Masden Wagner, MD, former Director for Women's and Children's Health at the World Health Organization. Each expert paints a dismal picture of American birthing and emphasizes the frequent overuse of medical procedures in what are otherwise potentially normal deliveries. Stressing the prevalent use of midwives in birthing in other developed nations (70% of births are attended by midwives in Europe and Japan, versus 8% in the U.S.), the documentary then follows Cara Muhlhahn, a certified nurse midwife in New York City, as she attends a variety of home births. The footage is candid and sometimes very graphic, showing various home-delivery methods, including water birth. Interviews with Cara and her clients emphasize their shared philosophy on birthing as a normal life process that, when attended by a caring and well-trained midwife, can be both empowering and exhilarating. Though a midwife is often characterized as a supportive, but medically untrained birth attendee, the film dispels that stereotype, stressing a good midwife's solid training and knowledge of when it's appropriate to seek outside medical intervention. Key in every birth is a commitment to doing what's best for mother and baby, regardless of pre-planned agendas. The filmmaker's lament is that hospitals and doctors often too quickly advocate medical intervention in the interest of saving time and avoiding potential litigation. While unquestionably advocating midwifery over hospital birthing, this documentary presents solid expert opinions, concrete facts and statistics, and anecdotal experiences of both mothers and midwives that are crucial in making an informed decision about the use of midwifery in birthing as well as enlightening as to the current state of birthing in the United States. --Tami Horiuchi

Birth is a miracle a rite of passage a natural part of life. But birth is also big business.Compelled to explore the subject after the delivery of her first child actress Ricki Lake recruits filmmaker Abby Epstein to question the way American women have babies.Epstein gains access to several pregnant New York City women as they weigh their options. Some of these women are or will become clients of Cara Muhlhahn a charismatic midwife who between birth events shares both memories and footage of her own birth experience.Footage of women having babies punctuates THE BUSINESS OF BEING BORN. Each experience is unique; all are equally beautiful and equally surprising. Giving birth is clearly the most physically challenging event these women have ever gone through but it is also the most emotionally rewarding.Along the way Epstein conducts interviews with a number of obstetricians experts and advocates about the history culture and economics of childbirth. The film‟s fundamental question: should most births be viewed as a natural life process or should every delivery be treated as a potential medical emergency?As Epstein uncovers some surprising answers her own pregnancy adds a very personal dimension to THE BUSINESS OF BEING BORN a must-see movie for anyone even thinkingSystem Requirements:Running Time: 85 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Rating: UNRATED UPC: 794043120787 Manufacturer No: 1000038370

Inside

INSIDE (DVD MOVIE)

The Perfect Pregnancy Workout

You've got nine months to prepare for the challenge of your life. Use every minute! The Perfect Pregnancy Workout will: -improve your mood -reduce lower back pain -develop mental discipline to control labor pain -tone your lower body to handle the demands of labor and birth -make it easier to lose weight after your baby is born -strengthen your upper body to lift and hold your baby -help eliminate or avoid incontinence and hemorroids

Karyne Steben, a world-class acrobat formerly with Cirque du Soleil, leads us through the sculpting workout, combining strength moves with graceful flexibility.

First time exercisers can feel at ease; Karyne illustrates exercise techniques and explains the dos and don'ts of exercise during pregnancy in a clear, easy-to-understand twelve-minute instructional section.

With options to make it fun for beginners and challenging for advanced exercisers, anyone can do The Perfect Pregnancy Workout!

The Perfect Pregnancy Workout video is a 43 minute pregnancy exercise video: 5 minute warm-up, 33 minute workout, 5 minute cool down. There is also a 12 minute instructional section explaining proper technique for pregnancy exercise.

*The Perfect Pregnancy Workout includes exercise variations for women with diastasis recti.*

Denise Austin: Fit & Firm Pregnancy

Congratulations! You are beginning the most exciting and challenging chapter of your life: having a baby! But that doesn't mean you can't stay in shape. With Fit & Firm: Pregnancy, fitness icon (and the mother of two) Denise Austin delivers an energy-boosting program that focuses on everyday strength, "perfect pregnancy posture" and reshaping your after-baby body! Breathing and Core Awareness: Stimulate your core muscles and elevate your spirit during this 5-minute preparatory segment. Cardio Workout: Give your energy a boost with this low-impact, fun, 20-minute, heart-healthy workout adapted for all three trimesters. 1st - 2nd Trimester Toning: Rejuvenate and sculpt your body from head to toe with 20 minutes of prenatal-fitness fun! 3rd Trimester Toning: Soothe sore muscles and maintain core strength with this 20-minute, refreshing workout that helps prepare you for delivery! "Bonus" Post Bounce-Back Workout: Bounce back fast with this 10-minute, invigorating routine that re-educates the abs for a waist-slimming workout.

Pilates During Pregnancy

Pilates During Pregnancy with Niece Pecenka - An inpiring Pilates based routine adapted for busy women in all trimesters who want to feel fit, healthy, and fabulous.

Pilates requires you to move consciously - using the breath to revitalize and energize - something you will need to depend on during and after childbirth. Every movement in Pilates emanates from the "center" - helping you focus on those muscles necessary for labor and delivery.

This routine is comprised of two distinct sections to make the most of you time.

Section I - abdominal and breath work = 15 minutes

Section II - side leg series, lower body work = 30 minutes

Sections I and II can be combined for a longer workout depending upon your time and energy level.

You will need a minimum of three blankets, folded and stacked. So Let's Move!

Bill Cosby, Himself

After I Spy and before The Cosby Show, Bill Cosby left his own inimitable mark on the arena of stand-up comedy in this live concert showcasing his down-to-earth observations on the rigors and joys of family life. Cosby, using only a microphone and a chair, discusses his take on raising kids and the illogical nature of children and the futility of trying to argue with a child that in the end may be smarter than you. Notable highlights include Cosby's ruminations on the meaning of the all-purpose phrase "I don't know" to kids, and Cosby describing the effect raising children has on his wife Camille's mental state and the pitch of her voice. Containing the basis for the humor of his long-running situation comedy, Bill Cosby: Himself is a polished, occasionally insightful, and frequently hilarious night of comedy from one of the longtime masters of the form. --Robert Lane

One of America's most popular comedians, Bill Cosby treats his fans to a funny, satirical and heart-warming concert at Toronto's Hamilton Place Performing Arts Center. His material ranges from marriage and the unending trials of parenthood, to the side-splitting antics of the very young, and a hilarious encounter with a dentist's drill and needle. Insightful and witty, this highly entertaining film is a rare cinematic treat, filled with all the spontaneity and electricity that only a live performance can provide.

National Geographic - In the Womb

From the moment of conception every human embryo embarks on an incredible nine month journey of development. Now cutting-edge technology makes it possible for National Geographic's In the Womb to open a window into the hidden world of the fetus and explore each trimester in amazing new detail. Revolutionary imagery sheds light on the delicate dark world of a fetus as never before.Running Time: 89 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 727994751267 Manufacturer No: G75126

Into the Woods

Fractured fairy tales of a darker hue provide the remarkable context for Into the Woods, which deconstructs the Brothers Grimm by way of Rod Serling. While the faces and names are familiar, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, and company inhabit a sylvan neighborhood in which witches and bakers are next-door neighbors, handsome princes from once-parallel fables are competitive (and equally vain) brothers, and all the stories intersect through unexpected new plot twists.

Stephen Sondheim's Tony-winning score favors intricate ensemble numbers that present the characters' divergent, then overlapping fears and desires. And it's the latter category that provides a primary thread to James Lapine's ingenious puzzle of a book, which coheres around the inevitability--and treachery--of our innermost wishes. That theme is given farcical energy in the first act, which offers enough comic invention, tart dialogue, and witty music for a satisfying evening of theater as is.

Instead, Sondheim and Lapine offer a bold, darker second act that takes a look at what happens after "happily ever after," elevating the work beyond inspired parody toward allegorical gravity. By the final scenes, with the one-two punch of the score's two most enduring songs, "No One Is Alone" and "Children Will Listen," what began as a clever diversion has touched deeper nerves and primed some tear ducts. This video production by the original Broadway cast gets its marquee shimmer from Bernadette Peters's wonderful witch, but the standout (and Tony winner as Best Actress) is Joanna Gleason, who gives the Baker's Wife a mixture of warmth, pragmatism, and sudden, poignantly romantic radiance.

The DVD version is comparatively no-frills, given its American Playhouse origins, but multiformat digital audio renders the musical performances in immaculate detail. --Sam Sutherland

Fractured fairy tales of a darker hue provide the remarkable context for Into the Woods, which deconstructs the Brothers Grimm by way of Rod Serling. While the faces and names are familiar, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, and company inhabit a sylvan neighborhood in which witches and bakers are next-door neighbors, handsome princes from once-parallel fables are competitive (and equally vain) brothers, and all the stories intersect through unexpected new plot twists.

Stephen Sondheim's Tony-winning score favors intricate ensemble numbers that present the characters' divergent, then overlapping fears and desires. And it's the latter category that provides a primary thread to James Lapine's ingenious puzzle of a book, which coheres around the inevitability--and treachery--of our innermost wishes. That theme is given farcical energy in the first act, which offers enough comic invention, tart dialogue, and witty music for a satisfying evening of theater as is.

Instead, Sondheim and Lapine offer a bold, darker second act that takes a look at what happens after "happily ever after," elevating the work beyond inspired parody toward allegorical gravity. By the final scenes, with the one-two punch of the score's two most enduring songs, "No One Is Alone" and "Children Will Listen," what began as a clever diversion has touched deeper nerves and primed some tear ducts. This video production by the original Broadway cast gets its marquee shimmer from Bernadette Peters's wonderful witch, but the standout (and Tony winner as Best Actress) is Joanna Gleason, who gives the Baker's Wife a mixture of warmth, pragmatism, and sudden, poignantly romantic radiance.

The DVD version is comparatively no-frills, given its American Playhouse origins, but multiformat digital audio renders the musical performances in immaculate detail. --Sam Sutherland

A baker and his wife journey into the woods in search of a cow, a red cape, a pair of golden slippers and some magic beans to lift a curse that has kept them childless. Tony Award winners Bernadette Peters, Joanna Gleason and the rest of the original Broadway cast weave their magic spell over you in Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece, directed by James Lapine, a seamless fusion of fairy tale characters and what happens after "happily ever after. "With oft-recorded songs such as "Children Will Listen" and "No One is Alone," "Into the Woods" is a music lover's delight from start to finish--and will forever cement Stephen Sondheim's unparalleled position as the giant of the American musical theater.

Laugh and Learn About Childbirth

'Laugh and Learn About Childbirth', America's # 1 Childbirth Class, is the first video in a series of educational classes for pregnant couples, and the only comprehensive childbirth course on the market. This new 2 DVD-Set is completely updated. All aspects of labor and delivery are covered, including pain relieving options, the entire Lamaze training with one breathing technique and natural childbirth, and for the first time everything you need to know about Cord Blood Banking. Like the other two video classes in this series, 'Laugh and Learn About Breastfeeding' and 'Laugh and Learn About Newborn Baby Care', 'Laugh and Learn About Childbirth' is also a fun and entertaining way to learn everything you need to know to have a pleasant pregnancy, labor and delivery. The classes are taught by award winning childbirth expert Sheri Bayles, RN, in six easy lessons, perfect for watching at your own pace in the comfort and convenience of your own home. In addition to the regular Childbirth Class, the producers added a Reunion with Sheri, the couples from this class and their new babies. Including in this DVD set is also a Special Feature containing vital information about Cord Blood Banking.