One cool thing about getting movies through Netflix is the wide assortment of titles we can get rather than the slightly limited selection at Blockbuster.
Alli and I have been watching the now-canceled HBO series Rome, and while the first two episodes were slow in character development (and Alli says the actor who portrays Julius Caesar is an awful actor at that), the subsequent episodes pick up and we’re enjoying it.
One thing that caught our eye: slaves. Especially in the fifth episode of season one, “The Ram Has Touched The Wall,” one of the characters went to pick up his slaves from the market, only to find all but one had died from a bubonic plague of some sort. The only survivor is a little boy. After the episode was over, Alli said to me “I’m used to the American concept of slaves — black people. It’s strange to see these white slaves in Rome.” I paused and thought about it and agreed — most of the slaves in Rome were taken through conquest of territories — i.e. Gaul, Carthage. These slaves would be of different race, gender, or ethnicity — not what we’ve learned in American textbooks.
Find out more about Roman slaves here.
Then last night we watched The Business of Being Born. (Here again, is a good example of why we like Netflix — the cool movies we can select from Netflix’s list).
Here’s a synopsis of the movie:
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.
The film interlaces intimate birth stories with surprising historical, political and scientific insights and shocking statistics about the current maternity care system. When director Epstein discovers she is pregnant during the making of the film, the journey becomes even more personal.
Should most births be viewed as a natural life process, or should every delivery be treated as a potentially catastrophic medical emergency?
Alli and I are strong advocates of the use of midwifes during childbirth. We don’t support the whole hospital thing — in fact the number of of women getting a c-section, being drugged on Picotin and getting an epidural has risen dramatically. The medical industry views this as a business. You have a baby, then it’ll reap plentiful for the hospitals. It was quite shocking to see some of the statistics (for instance, the U.S. has the third highest infant mortality rate in the world — yes, even after many third-world countries; and in Europe 70-80% of women have their births with midwife while here in the U.S. it’s 8%.)
Without giving away too much information — I strongly encourage any couple or anyone who is planning to have a baby to watch this documentary. You won’t lose anything by watching, but hopefully you will learn something.
Oh…by the way, I wish I had a ticket to tonight’s game at Nationals Park. It’s the first game in a brand-spankin’ new stadium in DC for the Washington Nationals!
