Documentary

Press, 8 September 1982, Page 20

Documentary

A New Zealand film about birth being made in Dunedin for the Federation of New Zealand Parents Centres is well advanced. The film, called “Winter’s Child,” will be a dramatised documentary. It will show first-time parents, Sylvia and John Gibson, preparing for the birth of their baby — a preparation which climaxes in scenes showing labour and birth.

Filming of the birth took place last month. Sylvia Gibson, an actress associated with the Fortune Theatre in Dunedin, gave birth to a son at Queen Mary Maternity Hospital after 20 hours of complication-free labour. She was supported during that time by her husband John, who is Fortune Theatre’s musical director, her doctor, and midwife. The “audience" at the Gibsons’ probably most memorable performance, included a cameraman and Parents’ Centre film project convener, Mrs Jenny Drew.

Jenny Drew acted as producer and stand-in for John Gibson when he fell briefly into an exhausted sleep. The film is being produced in Dunedin by an Aucklandbased company, Mowbray Film Associates. It deals mainly with preparation and learning leading up to labour and delivery. The birth scenes, says Mrs Drew, are a positive climax to the film. The Parents Centre hopes the film will have a wide market in New Zealand and overseas. It is envisaged as being widely used in antenatal classes, as well as being a teaching film for medical, nursing, and physiotherapy students.

“Birth films shown in New Zealand to ante-natal classes, students and other groups mainly depict a British or American experience,” Mrs g Drew pointed out. “The lack of a good New Zealand birth film has been felt for some time. Now we can show people a New Zealand experience.”