Claire szülésznőként dolgozik, és imádja a munkáját. Egy nap hosszú idő után felbukkan életében egy rég nem látott ismerős, Beatrice, aki édesapja egykori szeretője volt és szinte mindenben a megfontolt és visszafogott Claire ellentéte. A különös találkozás teljesen felforgatja a nő mindennapjait. Szembe kell néznie a régi sérelmekkel, ugyanakkor Ő az egyetlen, aki támaszt nyújthat a súlyos betegséggel küszködő egykori mostoha anyjának.
Illa de Arousa, 1971, a Franco-diktatúra idején. María halászattal keresi a kenyerét, és a falubeli nőknek segít a szülésnél. Amikor egy fiatal lány véletlenül teherbe esik, María segítségét kéri, aki tudja, hogyan lehet a rozskalászon található fekete mag főzetével abortuszt végezni. A magzat elhajtása illegális a fasiszta rendszerben: a kockázat óriási, és minden érintett nő veszélybe kerül. María menekülni kényszerül, és veszélyes útra indul. Jól tudja, hogy a túlélés a tét.
Amikor Anya úgy kezd viselkedni, mint nemrég elhunyt édesanyja, Emmettnek szembe kell néznie legmélyebb traumáival, hogy megszabadítsa menyasszonyát ettől a zavarba ejtő megszállottságtól.
That Mothers Might Live is a 1938 American short drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann. The short is a brief account of Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis and his discovery of the need for cleanliness in 19th-century maternity wards, thereby significantly decreasing maternal mortality, and of his struggle to gain acceptance of his idea. Although Semmelweis ultimately failed in his lifetime, later scientific luminaries advanced his work in spirit like microbiologist Louis Pasteur, who provided a scientific theoretical explanation of Semmelweis' observations by helping develop the germ theory of disease and the British surgeon, Dr. Joseph Lister who revolutionized medicine putting Pasteur's research to practical use. In 1939, at the 11th Academy Awards, the film won an Oscar for Best Short Subject (One-Reel).
Alba, a young woman, lives with her boyfriend in a small apartment. One morning she receives terrible news along with the few month-old baby Mía, who is dropped off in her life. Upon her arrival, Alba experiences a series of insecurities and fears that will cause her into a mental breakdown. After her father is dead, Alba is forced to take care of the baby he left, even though the baby represents imbalance in her life.
Natalia is a 17-year-old mom living with her mother and son, Antos. She wanted to have a baby because it was a “cool” thing to do, and because she feels she has someone to love; someone who can love her in return. Everything changes when Natalia’s mother decides to move out, giving Natalia a chance to lead a “normal life.”
This student film by the award-winning Helena Třeštíková bears many of the hallmarks of her later work. Made as a graduation piece when she was at the FAMU Film and TV Academy in Prague, we see the director developing the distinctive observational style of filmmaking that she has used so effectively throughout her career. Over the course of several months, she follows a young pregnant woman as she becomes slowly acquainted with the joys and responsibilities of motherhood.
Jeanne take her daughter for the week-end in Majorque. While everything goes to rack and ruin, mother’s only concern is to photograph Kiki, the classroom mascot.
Saeko and Yukako live together in a small apartment complex in Tokyo. After the Tohoku earthquake in 2011, both live in a state of unease. Saeko, who is in a divorce, is worried that her daughter is exposed to radiation. Yukako is also afraid of radiation and tries to convince her husband to move. The two become friends after Yukako tries to save Saeko after a suicide attempt.
The planet’s busiest maternity hospital is located in one of its poorest and most populous countries: the Philippines. There, poor women face devastating consequences as their country struggles with reproductive health policy and the politics of conservative Catholic ideologies.
After giving birth to her first child at age 20, Mona Achache had the idea to make a film on childbirth. She filmed the work of midwives to produce this documentary, which became a reference in more than 500 maternity wards and private midwives' offices in France during birth preparation sessions.
It is 1968 and Marianne is nineteen years old. She has been sent to a home for young girls, far from her family and friends. Here she meets other girls whose secrets have turned their lives upside down.
Being mother is the most natural thing in the world. Or so it seems. Yet the demands on women with children have rarely been as overloaded and contradictory as they are in today’s Western world. Promises of happiness are often followed by disadvantages, excessive demands and feelings of guilt. The mother has become an artificially glorified ideal, which nevertheless is often legitimized by the „nature of the woman“. We live in a time when three people could claim to be the same child’s mother: egg donors give their genes to beget children, surrogate mothers deliver babies which they give away immediately after birth, and men raise children by themselves – without a woman at their side. Hence the question arises: What makes a human being a real mother?
Helena, a woman in her early 40's, is obsessed with getting pregnant. After failing her last try, her neighbors get back from the hospital with their new born baby. Helena breaks in to their house when they´re gone, steals the baby monitor and starts listening to what happens next door.
By approaching the process of sexual reassignment, the work mixes data and experiences, focusing on family relationships and the nuances of the feminine.
In parallel stories, a social butterfly and a lower middle-class wife brace themselves for the challenge of birthing a child in the modern era.
Given the fetishizing and normalizing character that is given to motherhood in patriarchy in order to perpetuate the social order, do we truly choose to be mothers? Why is care, of fundamental vital labor, presupposed as an especially appropriate task for women?