Explore Your Options: Birth Centers, Doulas & C-Sections

This essential DVD offers birth-planning guidance around key topics such as the role of doulas (labor support specialists,) the advantages of birth centers and the alarming escalation of cesarean sections in the United States and Brazil. Epstein and Lake talk to doulas about why their profession is currently booming and uncover why having a good doula can make-or-break the entire birth experience. They look at the ever-growing rates of c-sections, which have reached 50% in many US hospitals and more than 99% in some private hospitals in Brazil. How "safe" are these cesarean surgeries, and what are the health implications for the mothers and babies? Explore Your Choices also looks at the option to deliver in a birth center as a middle ground between the home and the hospital. Special features on this informative DVD include stars Alanis Morissette and Alyson Hannigan on the advantages of doulas, Christy Turlington Burns on her unexpected complications at a birth center, Molly Ringwald on how she avoided a cesarean birth with her twins and Gisele Bundchen and Michelle Alves on the cesarean epidemic in their native Brazil.