I have to admit upfront this was one of the documentaries I was least pumped to watch. But when The Girl asks to watch some of these documentaries with me and then proceeds to pick out "The Business of Being Born," well, I had to do what I had to do.

It's not that I was expecting "The Business of Being Born" to be bad or boring, it's just that the issue of childbirth wasn't one I was immediately taken to — despite having a child of my own. Plus, you know, the last thing I need right now is for my girlfriend to get child fever. JOKES!

Still, there was a little counteracting balance, it seems, in choosing to watch this documentary right after "Restrepo."

Anyway, like a lot of documentaries, "The Business of Being Born," takes its cue from the popular notion that big businesses are corrupt, or, at the very least, only concerned with the bottom line, and this, in some way, is limiting you, robbing you, somehow, of happiness or money or something else your heart desires.

And "The Business of Being Born" doles out this message in the most relentlessly heartrending way possible: with babies. Oh, and unexpectedly and weirdly enough, this message is delivered by Ricki Lake.

After a disappointing experience with her first birth, Lake talks filmmaker Abby Epstein into doing a documentary on the maternity care system in America. (Epstein, incidentally, becomes pregnant at some point during the filming and her pregnancy becomes a central part of the film.)

We learn things like how a long time ago (but not that long ago, like the early part of the 20th Century), most births in this country were done by midwives and/or at home. We learn how most of Europe and parts of Asia still perform births this way. And yet, the United States lags pretty far behind those other countries in terms of infant mortality rates.

Why is this?

Lake and Epstein posit that it's because OB/GYN's aren't trained extensively in birthgiving. They're surgeons. A running gag (if I can call it that) in the documentary is showing the reaction to OB/GYN students or doctors to the question of whether they ever witnessed a live birth during their studies.

They back this theory up with interviews from some OB/GYN doctors who actually hold the same opinion they do and with data showing the rise in C-sections correlating to the upswing in the use of OB/GYNs.

So to recap: Babies are dying in the U.S. because women are increasingly relying on surgeons to perform their births instead of trained midwives. These surgeons (OB/GYNs) are then scheduling c-sections more frequently because it's quicker than waiting for a baby to come to term, and because it's easier on them to do a surgery than it is to perform a live birth (even though live births have far fewer complications). These surgeons perform most of their c-sections, by the way, around 4 and 10 p.m., because that's either when they want to go home for the day or when they want to go to bed.

So if all this is true why aren't more women choosing home births? "The Business of Being Born" says it's because of a lack of education and (here's another famous documentary scapegoat) insurance companies.

Insurance companies are in cahoots with organizations like the American Medical Association and as such make it difficult for women to choose these safer options by denying coverage for home births.

It's serious business, surely, but I couldn't help think of countless science fiction books and movies, particularly "Brave New World," and its depiction of babies without parents being kept in cold, harsh realities, learning right and wrong by a series of electric jolts.

The thought was so extreme that I laughed a little inside, keeping the chuckles from my girlfriend, lest I encounter her scorn. But I also hid the tears that nearly came after seeing mothers give birth to their babies at home, in a warm, comfortable environment, where the joy on their faces somehow looked more real and intense.

It is true, though, that after watching a few home births and seeing how seemingly painless (relatively speaking) and easy and joyful home births can be, that the modern maternity care system suddenly had that same cold feeling I was left with when reading "Brave New World" for the first time.

I was young when I had my son, who was delivered via c-section, so my memories of that experience seem far removed from me. I was certainly overwhelmed in the moment, but I also recall feeling a certain distance from the whole thing because of the surgery.

At the time we were told a c-section was the safest option because of my then wife's medical condition. Our doctor said he didn't want to compromise the baby and that's all we needed to hear. C-section it was then!

So I walked back to the surgery room shortly after my wife was wheeled there herself. When she was properly prepped they called me back and I was ordered to stand near her head. Her lower half was covered and a barrier was erected so we couldn't see the surgery.

When my son was taken out of my wife's stomach, I stood to the side and watched my son being held in the air, all bloody and wrinkly as newborns are. They cleaned him up and brought him to me and I cut the umbilical cord. It was the best moment of my life, and yet I remember feeling at the time like something was missing.

And I have to admit, "The Business of Being Born" made a compelling case that that something was a home birth.

Watched:

Day 1: "The Union: The Business Behind Getting You High"

Day 2: "Pearl Jam 20"

Day 3: "My Winnipeg"

Day 4: "180 Degrees South"

Day 5: "Restrepo"

Day 6: "The Business of Being Born"

Still to come:

"Heavy Metal in Baghdad"

"Hoop Dreams"

"Man on Wire"

"Sweetgrass"

"Touching the Void"

"The Cove"

"Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child"

"Exit Through the Gift Shop"

"Encounters at the End of the World"

"The Garden"

"Wild China"

"Blindsight"

"Up the Yangtze"

"Beer Wars"

"Microcosms"

"Marwencol"

"No Impact Man"

"The Pixar Story"

"Capitalism: A Love Story"

"Waiting for Superman"

"Waste Land"

"Who Killed The Electric Car"

"The Future of Food"

"Gonzo"

"Biggie and Tupac"

"We Live in Public"

"Examined Life"

"God Grew Tired of Us"

"The Thin Blue Line"

"Troubled Water"

"Dark Days"

"Paris is Burning"

"Page One"

"Which Way Home"