From Conception to Birth

Produced by the Discovery Channel, From Conception to Birth follows different stages of pregnancy with nine women and their families, combining interviews, anatomical footage, and computer-generated imagery to capture the miracle of human gestation and birth. From the technical (at eight weeks, the walnut-sized fetus has most of its major organs in place) to the vernacular (one lady says the baby feels like “a big basketball”), the program interweaves amazing real-life and simulated footage with commentary on topics ranging from weight gain and baby showers to miscarriages and childbirth. Although it includes talk of being “souped up with semen” and graphic footage of the final stages of labor (which may not be for the weak-stomached), From Conception to Birth nevertheless presents a solid combination of the scientific and the personal aspects of life's beginning, from one pair of cells to a trillion. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (J. Williams-Wood)