As suggested viewing for expectant moms and their loved ones, Bethlehem midwife Laurice Dunning, owner of Lehigh Valley Midwives & Associates, has scheduled a free screening of Why Not Home?, a film exploring home birth and the current paradigm of childbirth in America, at 7 p.m., August 4, in Fogelsville.

Nurse practitioner Jessicca Moore, who produced and directed the film, and many of her medical colleagues such as doctors, nurses and midwives, are choosing to give birth at home instead of the hospital. Moore explores the rationale behind their decisions, from OB/GYN concerns about hospital protocols to time spent with charts, computers and paperwork.

Why Not Home? also answers many common questions such as whether birth is safe or better at home; why there is often conflicting data and political agendas surrounding home vs. hospital birth; who should give birth in a hospital; why midwifery care, which can play a key role in healthier births, is marginalized in the U.S. and standard throughout Europe; why U.S. rates for Caesarian sections (now at 32 percent), as well as maternal and infant mortality, are so poor; what are the financial considerations of home versus hospital birth; and how we can better integrate home birth into the medical system and ways to expand homebirth beyond the typical upper-middle-class white woman.

For reservations and location, call 610- 417-8744. See ad page 29.