THE FILM
Miriam: Home Delivery is a feature length documentary about one of the world's oldest professions.
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Miriam is a home birth midwife.
In America, caesarians and hospital births are considered the norm.
Outside the mainstream there exists a network of home birth midwives working with women as they exercise their choice and regain ownership over the childbirth experience.
THE FILM
An intimate observation of the complete process of home birthing - a trend on the rise in many communities, including the Orthodox Jewish community - Miriam: Home Delivery follows a charismatic, Brooklyn-based, home birth midwife who has helped mothers giving birth at home for more than two decades, as she’s on call, and provides care to mothers in various stages of their pregnancies.
Director Juliet Jordan follows Miriam Schwarzschild as she drives from home to home in New York City. Miriam visits her expectant mothers before the deliveries, conducting sonograms and check ups. Each woman presents Miriam with anxieties and questions, to which Miriam responds with the frankness and warmth of a close friend.
“Saying you’re a midwife is a political thing … we’ve always been seen as witches.” Miriam treats birthing as a natural part of life to be experienced, not a problem to be solved.
In the midst of Superstorm Sandy, Miriam braves the weather and slippery roads separating Brooklyn from Manhattan to perform a delivery, even after New York State ordered citizens to stay inside.
TEAM
Director/Producer
JULIET JORDAN
Photography/Sound
JULIET JORDAN
Editing
KATHRYN BARNIER
Sound Designer
MARLENA GRZASLEWICZ
Sound Mix
MARTIN CZEMBOR
Titles/Graphics
AJ RUSSO
©DOG ROSE FILMS