An Exploration of the Consciousness of Infants

What Babies Want is an award winning documentary film that explores the profoundly important and sacred opportunity we have in bringing children into the world. Filled with captivating stories and infused with Noah Wyle’s warmth as narrator, the film demonstrates how life patterns are established at birth and before. The documentary includes groundbreaking information on early development as well as appearances by the real experts: babies and families.

Success Through Play™ spoke with the film’s director, Debby Takikawa:

What inspired you to produce this movie and what were you goals?

Debby Takikawa:
For many years now I have been committed to offering information to families about birth, babies and early childhood parenting. Personally, I had some very sad moments when I realized how unaware I was as a young parent raising my children, and how little information I had to help me understand them, and how much misinformation I had about the nature of infants and young children. I looked back on all the things that I did that were not in the best interest of my children, and I decided that I would like to support families to have the information they need, information I wish I would have had, to make good parenting decisions. In the year 2000 I opened Beginnings Inc., an NPO with a threefold mission. The clinic was for working with babies and their families who felt they had attachment questions, challenges or issues. The clinic was also a teaching program for MFT (Marriage and Family Therapist) interns who wished to explore the therapeutic process with babies in order to more fully understand adult issues that originated during the developmental years. The third part of the mission was public outreach. It was through the public outreach part of the organization that I decided making a short little educational video would be a good idea. I placed my idea before the board of directors, who were just as unsuspecting as I was about the enormity of the way the project would unfold!My intention was to be able to show the video to people who were interested in the clinic, but didn’t understand what we did or why a baby would be able to benefit from our work. The video turned out to be a real documentary film. It went to film festivals and won awards! By now hundreds of thousands of people have seen it. I ended up showing this film all over the country, and as a result, I have sold over 10,000 copies, and many of those copies have been used over and over in parenting and birth classes. I receive letters nearly every day from practitioners who say that it helps families to understand their babies more than anything else they have tried. It opens the door to conversation and affirms instinctual healthy parenting impulses that have been suppressed by years of cultural beliefs that babies were not aware and are not able to learn or feel or communicate. It has been an exciting process for me because I think the film works for people who do not know that their babies are already sensitive people with feelings and sensations and meaningful thoughts and experiences of their own. So What Babies Want is a great tool for outreach. There is a huge emerging field of birth practitioners who are reaching out to the public, and this film is extremely helpful for that purpose. When I made the film, I had no idea that it would take me so far!

Chapter Highlights
To read some chapter highlights, please click here

PURCHASING:

Please click here to purchase.

The DVD is zoned for international use and www.whatbabieswant.com will mail the DVD anywhere in the world that has mail service.

The DVD is currently being translated into 12 different languages. If you are interested in assisting in the translation and are fluent in a foreign language, please visit www.whatbabieswant.com for contact details.

Debby:“We are currently looking for people to help translate the DVD into German, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Dutch, Danish, Serbian, Cantonese. I have possible translators for French, Japanese, Italian. I am still looking for really any other languages, just in case someone out there wants to be involved! I am also hoping for people to review the languages that have already been translated. In some cases the language already has a team working on it, in other cases the language is being done by only one person, so helpers are also welcome!”

Success Through Play™ Comments:

This DVD is a revolutionary documentary which examines a question that no-one asks “What Babies Want”. Narrated by Noah Wyle and featuring world renowned experts who examine and explore this question.

We learn in this DVD that babies are indeed conscious from birth and are not simply “blobs”. We were particularly touched by Sobonfu Some, who’s name means “Keeper of the Rituals” who shares the traditions of her tribe who honor and celebrate
children and community.

Sebonfu teaches us that in her tribe, they appreciate women and the gift that they are about to bring into the world (unborn child). One of the most touching scenes in the documentary takes us into the forest where Sobonfu leads a group of women who
sing and welcome and honor a group of pregnant women with beautiful traditional songs. Researches share that a womens emotional state during pregnancy determines the shape and structure of the babies brain. How an infant bonds is explored in depth and this fascinating documentary suggests that an infant can have a 3 month delay in development if an infant does not bond successfully with his parents immediately following birth. Of particular importance is the chapter which examines current hospital protocols which separate healthy full term babies from their parents. We learn that if babies are separated from their parents at birth, they will bond to machines and will lose the opportunity to develop trust. Well known Pediatrician Jay Gordon emphasizes that “healthy full term babies stabilize much much better in moms arms than away from her”.Until recently, many health professionals thought that babies did not experience any pain and thus handled infants roughly. We now understand that this is completely untrue and the manner in which a baby is welcomed into the world is of key importance to his future as we track our experience of life from birth to death.

To learn more, please visit:

www.whatbabieswant.com.