The Face of Birth press kitSynopsis

The Face of Birth - a film about pregnancy, childbirth and the power of choice.

Three years in the making, filmed across the globe from London to Alice Springs, The Face of Birth is a movie with vital information for anyone considering giving birth today.

In 2009 it nearly became illegal to have a homebirth in Australia. Three years later in 2012 the number of women choosing a homebirth has doubled! Who are these women and why are the medical establishment and current birth culture so against them?

This 87-minute documentary follows the diverse, heart warming and sometimes heart wrenching stories of a hand-full of mothers as they guide us through the plethora of information and opinions facing mothers–to-be when deciding how, where and with whom to give birth to their babies.

The film sorts fact from fiction in childbirth. It explores the politics of risk, safety and fear and exposes our mistrust of women in birth. The film also features many of the world’s top birth experts, including the famed Sheila Kitzinger (author of over 23 books on pregnancy and childbirth), and the founder of modern midwifery in the USA, Ina May Gaskin.

We hear from Dr Rupert Sherwood, (President, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) whose college actively opposes homebirth saying that it is ‘unsafe’. Obstetricians Euan Wallace and Andrew Bisits (who have started up hospital homebirth pilot programs.) strongly disagree, claiming that modern obstetrics is not serving the best interests of women.

Our diverse home birth mothers include AFI award winning actress Noni Hazlehurst. She’s know by one generation from Playschool and another from City Homicide, but do her fans know why she chose a home birth?

Mother and doctor Sara Renwick - Lau, chose a home birth for her second child after her first baby was delivered by emergency caesarean section at a maternity hospital in Darwin where she also worked. She claims her independent midwife gave much better care than her colleagues at the hospital.

And young Aboriginal mum Tanya Kunoth, from the remote community Utopia in central Australia, who had two babies in hospital and two babies on country, she shares why it’s

so important for her to be able to birth on her land, and why for her home felt safer than in hospital.

Beautifully filmed and openly revealing, The Face of Birth tells about all the things we never knew about birth and the power of choice.

BIOSMothers

Noni Hazlehurst

Dr Sarah Renwick Lau

Noni is one of Australia’s most distinguished and respected actors and is a winner of four Australian Film Institute (AFI) awards, a recipient of an Order of Australia in 1995 and an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy from Flinders University (SA). She is an ambassador and patron for numerous child welfare organisations.  Passionate about women's rights Noni shares her beautiful home birth stories of both her sons and her feminist view on birth being marginalized in Australia today.

A remote-area  GP,  Sarah worked for two years in Arnhem Land, in Australia's Northern Territory, where isolation means it’s vital to be prepared and avoid risks. Despite this she still chose an empowering and totally natural vaginal birth after caesarian (VBAC) at home for her second child.

Johanna Preston

Vicki Car

Tanya Kunoth

Johanna lives in the glamorous world of high fashion as an internationally renowned shoe designer and businesswoman. Johanna had her three children at home in her studio/residence with her independent midwife.

A Croatian Australian, Vicki holds the prestigious position of Head Milliner at The Australian Ballet. Vicki experienced medical complications along her home birth journey, which eventually led to an emergency caesarean. She shares her experience, which she describes as positive because she was able to choose and retain independent midwife lead care.

Tanya lives in a remote Aboriginal community in central Australia, 270 kilometers from the nearest hospital. She has four children; two were born in hospital and two born 'on country' with her care led by the community health service midwife.

BIOS EXPERTSSome of our experts (for a full list see www.faceofbirth.com)

Sheila Kitzinger MBE

Michel Odent

Richard Porter

Hannah Dahlen

Social anthropologist, researcher, author and campaigner for nurtured evidence-based childbirth, Sheila lectures internationally and atvarious universities and hospitals in midwifery.She has written over 26 books on pregnancy and childbirth including the well known Politics of Birth. She now works with women who have had damaging birth experiences and campaigns for women to have the information they need to make choices about childbirth

Michel Odent MD initially trained as a surgeon. He was in charge of the surgical and maternity units at the state hospital in Pithiviers, France (1962-1985) where, he introduced the first birthing centres and water births during the 1970s. Now he is a midwife, educator, researcher and author of 12 books.Following his hospital career he founded the Primal Health Research Centre in London (UK), whose objective is to study the long-term consequences of early life experiences.

Richard Porter MA MSc BM BCh FRCOG is the Director of Maternity Services at the Royal United Hospital (RUH) in Bath, England.He has been the Lead Uro-gynaecologist/Pelvic Floor Surgeon since 2001.He was an adviser on Maternity Services (in the former USSR) to the World Health Organisation, UK Department of International Development, and other NGOs. He was Adviser on Maternity Services to Ministry of Health, Uzbekistan from 1992 to 2003.

Hannah Dahlen is the Associate Professor of Midwifery at the University of Western Sydney. Hannah has published numerous papers in peer reviewed journals and book chapters. She has presented papers at over 100 conferences since 2000. She is currently on the Australian College of

Euan Wallace

Rhea Dempsey

Hannah Dahlen is the Associate Professor of Midwifery at the University of Western Sydney. Hannah has published numerous papers in peer reviewed journals and book chapters. She has presented papers at over 100 conferences since 2000. She is currently on the Australian College of

Professor Euan Wallace MBChB, MD, FRCOG, FRANZCOG graduated with a degree in Medicine from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where he completed his research and clinical training. He  joined Monash University, Melbourne Australia in 1996. He established and leads a Maternal-Fetal Medicine Research Group within Monash Institute for Medical Research’s (MIMR) Centre for Women’s Health Research. In 2010 he set up a pilot home birth program

Rhea Dempsey T.P.T.C. Dip. C.B.E., N.A.C.E., Trainer, Grad. Dip, Counseling and Human Services is childbirth educator with over 28 years' experience and is the mother of three daughters.She works with women in home and hospital settings. She is a regular presenter at conferences, seminars and workshops on birth and counseling issues as well as running her own classes through the Birthing Wisdom

Professor Lesley Page was expert adviser to The King’s Fund Independent Inquiry into the safety of maternity services in England, which reported in Safe Births: Everybody’s Business (2008).Lesley has had many years of experience working as a

Lesley Page

Andrew Bisits

Sally Tracy

Professor Lesley Page was expert adviser to The King’s Fund Independent Inquiry into the safety of maternity services in England, which reported in Safe Births: Everybody’s Business (2008).Lesley has had many years of experience working as a

Andrew Bisits MBBS (Syd FRANZCOG (RCOG) DipClinEpidem (Newcastle) Master Med Statistics (Newcastle) runs the birthing unit at Sydney's Royal Hospital for Women.He is an academic obstetrician with training in epidemiology and biostatistics. Formerly he was the Director of Obstetrics in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales, Australia,

Sally is a midwife, researcher, author and activist.She is the Professor of Midwifery at the University of Sydney and based at the Midwifery Research Unit at the Royal Hospital for Women, Sydney. Her Research projects include a randomised controlled trial of caseload midwifery care and a project to determine the safety of primary level midwifery led units.She helped to set up the Ryde Midwifery Caseload Practice in Sydney, in 2003. Her current research questions the acceptability of the increasing interference of obstetrics with the physiological birth process.

Rupert Sherwood

Djapirri Mununggurritji

Lena Pula (Pwerle)

Dr Sherwood  - President Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology (RANZCOG) is a graduate of the Medical School of the University of Tasmania.  For eight and a half years he worked as a General Practitioner in Western Australia. In 1992 he commenced specialist training at King Edward Memorial Hospital in Perth where he was a Registrar for three years before coming to the Royal Hobart Hospital to complete his training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. In 1998 he helped form Hobart OBGYN, a specialist obstetrics and gynaecology practice. Dr Sherwood maintains an interest in teaching medical students, registrars and residents at the Royal Hobart Hospital. He is also a College examiner.

Yolgnu elder Djapirri is currently Manager of the Yirrkala Women’s Centre and a trailblazer in the political arena. She was the first woman elected as Vice Chair of Yirrkala Dhanbul Council and the first woman to be nominated as Chair. In 2004, Djapirri was instrumental in establishing the Yirrkala Women’s Patrol, which saw Aboriginal elders walk the streets late at night to successfully deal with community safety issues. She is also working towards reconciliation on a national scale in her role on the board of Reconciliation Australia. Djapirri is also a finalist in Australian of the year - Local Hero for Northern Territory

Respected Elders, sisters Lena and Rosie Pula are traditional Indigenous midwives from the Arlparra Urapuntja community in Central Australia. They have many years experience in helping women birth 'on country'. They still  occasionally attend births, working with the Urapuntja Health Service's midwives. Lena has been a member of the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority Board since 1999. She is regarded by other female board members as an authority on women’s site issues. As her role as traditional grandmother she sits on Alukura Cultural Advisory Council (ACAC). Lena and Rosie are also well known artists

Ina May Gaskin

Robbie Davis Floyd

Ina May Gaskin MA, CPM is founder and director of the Farm Midwifery Center, Tennessee, USA. She has attended more than 1,200 births and is author of Spiritual Midwifery, now in its fourth edition. For twenty-two years she published Birth Gazette, a quarterly covering health care, childbirth and midwifery issues. She has lectured all over the world at midwifery conferences and at medical schools. In 1997, she received the ASPO/Lamaze Irwin Chabon Award and the Tennessee Perinatal Association Recognition Award. In 2003 she was chosen as Visiting Fellow of Morse College, Yale University. Ina May developed the Gaskin Manoeuvre -the first obstetrical manoeuvre to be named after a midwife.

Robbie Davis Floyd PhD is a Senior Research Fellow in Anthropology at the University of Texas, Austin, and an Adjunct Associate Professor of Anthropology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.She is a cultural anthropologist specializing in medical, ritual and gender studies and the anthropology of reproduction. She lectures at childbirth, midwifery and obstetrical conferences around the world. Robbie has written over 70 articles as well as the book Birth as an American Rite of Passage (1992).

Background: Making The Face of BirthMelbourne filmmaker and actor Kate Gorman, pregnant for the third time, had just found out that her right to choose how, where and with whom she gave birth was under threat. Shocked that she might have one of the last legal homebirths in Australia, Kate was compelled to make a film about the issue. Her first call was to a producer friend, who insisted she talk to Newcastle filmmaker, Gavin Banks.

Gavin was in development of a documentary about the value of continuity of care in birth, and the great divide between the latest scientific recommendations (evidence-based practice) and clinical practice in modern maternity care.

The two filmmakers met, agreed to collaborate and immediately embarked on what was to become a three-year, across-the-world-and-back journey to research, write, interview, film and edit The Face of Birth.

KATE - ‘It has been a privilege to meet the world top birth experts and to hear the stories from our mothers, I hope this film moves, entertains, informs and most of all, helps women feel empowered to make informed choices for having their babies, helps them have empowered births with great outcomes and without fear. For as every mother knows, that moment when you catch and hold your newborn to your bare skin is the beginning of falling in love. How and where this happens is the first of a million choices that you will make for your child. Every choice needs to be respected for every women and there needs to be the support to help her achieve the birth she wants whenever medically possible.’

The Filmmakers

Kate Gorman Kate has worked in the film industry for the last 25 years. As an actor

appearing in more than 25 TV programs including City Homicide, Rush, Kath

and Kim, Full Frontal and several years on some of Australia’s best loved

soaps. Six feature films and 25 plays both here and in the UK.

As a writer she has written for, Comedy Inc and Full Frontal, breakfast radio

on TTFM as well as receiving development funding from Film Victoria for a

feature screenplay which was optioned by a Melbourne production house. She

went onto write the screenplay for her award winning film FIVE MOMENTS

OF INFIDELITY which she also produced and directed.

FIVE MOMENTS OF INFIDELITY won - Best Film DIGISPAA, Best Film Salento

IFF (Italy), Best Australian film IPIFF (USA), and screened at 10 other

Festivals – receiving further nominations for Best Screenplay, Best Direction

and several Best Performance nominations.

Kate has three children her eldest borne in a birth centre, 2nd at home in the

UK and her youngest at home in Melbourne. Kate is passionate about telling

stories, and by capturing on film strong women’s stories would like to help

change the culture of birth from one of fear to one of support and

empowerment.

Gavin Banks

Kate has worked in the film industry for the last 25 years. As an actor

appearing in more than 25 TV programs including City Homicide, Rush, Kath

and Kim, Full Frontal and several years on some of Australia’s best loved

soaps. Six feature films and 25 plays both here and in the UK.

As a writer she has written for, Comedy Inc and Full Frontal, breakfast radio

on TTFM as well as receiving development funding from Film Victoria for a

feature screenplay which was optioned by a Melbourne production house. She

went onto write the screenplay for her award winning film FIVE MOMENTS

OF INFIDELITY which she also produced and directed.

FIVE MOMENTS OF INFIDELITY won - Best Film DIGISPAA, Best Film Salento

IFF (Italy), Best Australian film IPIFF (USA), and screened at 10 other

Festivals – receiving further nominations for Best Screenplay, Best Direction

and several Best Performance nominations.

Kate has three children her eldest borne in a birth centre, 2nd at home in the

UK and her youngest at home in Melbourne. Kate is passionate about telling

stories, and by capturing on film strong women’s stories would like to help

change the culture of birth from one of fear to one of support and

empowerment.

Gavin's career in film & TV started almost 20 years ago when he commenced a B.A. in Communication Studies. After graduating top of his year he entered the world of broadcast television as an ENG cameraman for PRIME television before moving into the private sector where he started directing, shooting and editing corporate and industrial films.

In 2000 Gavin established his own boutique production company, GOOD EYE DEER, which continues to produce content for many local, national and international clients.

His first foray into documentary was working as cinematographer on the critically-acclaimed THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN LOCKOUT, a 1hr documentary for the history channel. Other achievements include working as cinematographer on the multi-award-winning short THE UNSPOKEN ; and working as Director of Photography on the independent feature, BATHING FRANKY, released in June 2012.

Gavin's introduction to the benefits of natural, physiological childbirth started in 2003, when he co-directed THE BIRTHRITE EXPERIENCE, a 1hr educational film about the physiological benefits of upright birth. Fascinated by the emotional impact of the birth experience on mother and baby, Gavin's interest in birth continued. Research began into understanding the divide between the realities of modern maternity service provision and evidence-based practice.

Gavin lives in Newcastle with his partner and two children.