Birth with Dr. R.D. Laing

Framed by the distinctive burr of influential Scottish thinker RD Laing, this 1977 documentary questions how the Western medical system handles childbirth: in Laing's view, "one of the disaster areas of our culture". Supported by arresting hospital footage and impassioned interviews with mothers, the film argues that women are often deliberately sidelined during the process of birth, and babies' needs ignored. Screenings in the United Kingdom and the United States saw it contributing to a debate about newborn care; one that remains ongoing. Birth won a Feltex Award for Best Documentary.

How would you like to be born? What is the first sample of the world you’d like to have? The white smell of antiseptics and instruments? The first contact with human beings a rubber glove?

– RD Laing

Key Cast & Crew

Sam Pillsbury

Director

Jackie Scott

Editor

R.D. Laing

Subject

Helen Brew

Interviewer, Producer

Pat Cox

Editor

Don Reynolds

Sound