Watching Documentaries

As we're nearing the birth date of our newest little one, I've probably spent less time reading more time just sitting and staring at anything and nothing. Feeling a bit more tired these days, I'm working on motivation to stay awake all through the day to give me a better chance at sleeping at night. To that end, because it takes less thinking effort and I find it both informative and enjoyable, I've been watching documentaries via Netflix. Here are a few I've seen, along with my brief thoughts.


My sister-in-law watched The Business of Being Born and I was curious about it. Very much a pro-natural delivery process - (taking place at home when that can be managed and arranged!) - it's a very intriguing documentary. Now, I'm not a natural-birth candidate. I agree with the reasons that are given in the film as to why you would want to do that if at all possible. My history is a bit more complicated though and it is impossible. So while I can agree with the arguments made, I don't find them safely applicable to myself.

Truthfully, I get a bit irritated when people insist to me that I can delivery naturally. No, actually, I cannot. As I said - I'm totally in support of it when it's possible and totally in support of c-sections when the are necessary.

The only argument that bugged me (to no end) in this film was the one made for natural birth because doing so releases certain hormones in the mother which promote bonding to her new baby. One of the doctors in the film said that he saw a mother who had a c-section who was not interested in her child. I'm not going to argue against such a hormone having an incredibly effect but I will argue incessantly that that's a poor argument to use to convince a woman to have a natural delivery. I am very. interested. in my kids. VERY! Plus, as an adoptive mom I'd have to say that the argument is kinda bogus. I didn't lay eyes on my second son for the first 9 months of his life. But I assure you, I cried and held onto that boy for dear life when he arrived and I think of him entirely as my own. I didn't see my first born for 10 minutes or so and that did not effect my ability to bond in the least. God knits hearts. Hormones not always included.

Anyway. It's an interesting piece but I took some issue with it. If you are pro-natural birth you will absolutely LOVE this documentary and will no doubt become very riled up about it! It's really remarkably well done (I thought anyway) and, like I said, if my situation were different, I might be riled in a different direction.

On a totally different note, I watched Auschwitz - Inside the Nazi State (a BBC production) which tells the story of the beginning of Auschwitz to its dirty, horrible end. Over 1 million people died in this Nazi Concentration Camp - more than all of the American and British troop numbers combined!

This is a six-part series and very much worth the time. Filled with old footage, modern interviews from survivors of the camp as well as SS officers, a variety of photographs, maps, and dramatizations really bring the story of this horrific camp to life (again.)

Some quotes from survivors:

"Death, death, death. Death in the morning. Death in the evening. Death in the afternoon. We lived with death."

"We felt that we could be killed at any minute - and we would not know why."

Documenting how the Nazi's perfected their craft of killing, this is certainly a chilling documentary. But necessary. Nothing about it is gratuitous. It doesn't need to be. The Nazis made life horrible in their own right.

I was asking myself why I wanted to watch this while pregnant and eventually came to the conclusion that it's a part of mothering. You want to know of the horrors so that you can fight against them and teach your children to fight against them. Yes, it's a distressing history but it's important to know of it for it will help us navigate the future and, quite hopefully, stand up for Biblical truth so as to avoid such atrocities that we will face in our own time. (For example - abortion. We're just perfecting our killing techniques these days. Now its abortion by lethal injection.)

One of the most impacting things about the whole documentary, to me, was feelings of retaliation and revenge that became so much a part of the survivor's lives. I can certainly understand their sentiment in not caring what happened to their German captors but there was also a sense of bitterness and sadness that was difficult to take in as they shared their personal stories. Again, not that they aren't expected to have such attitudes. but it can take you aback. Part of you expects them to have pity towards those who suffer, seeing that the survivors suffered so greatly themselves. But the general theme and attitude was that it's "every man/woman for themselves" and that just creates a cycle of hatred and demise. Very intriguing.

Both of these documentaries were definitely thought-provoking in their own way. If you ever get a chance to watch either, I recommend both (for different reasons, obviously.) They stir the brain. I've discovered I like a good documentary - when it's well done. Both of these most certainly were.