Socioeconomic Status of Babies

I found the "Babies" documentary to be very interesting. Although there was not really any talking throughout the film it was fascinating to see how different cultures as well as socioeconomic situations can be. I will admit that I had never considered how other people, in far away places, raise their young. Now, because of this movie, I have been exposed and have definitely learned a lot.

The movie started in Namibia with two very young, African boys playing with rocks. They had tiny huts but were outside a majority of the time. Their "home" was a dry, dirt filled area that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. There was no civilization or other people around. The women walked around topless and did all of the caretaking. I don't believe there were men anywhere; it seemed to only consist of women and their young. There were a few scenes in which the toddlers were carrying around the babies like they were stuffed animals. This location definitely shocked me the most. The women were constantly topless, they wiped their babies feces on their legs, worked with the children on their back, washed the kids by kind of nibbling things off their face, and didn't seem to supervise much.

In the next location, Mongolia, things were a bit more civilized. The mother-to-be was doing exercises with a group before she gave birth. When she finally did have her baby there was no immediate contact, they laid the baby in a for lack of a better word, container, at her side. When they were allowed to leave the medical center/hospital they wrapped the baby tightly in a blanket and rode off on a motorcycle. This baby was kept inside most of the time. Their home was also hut-like but with more room and actual floors. The baby is kept on a kind of bed for a while, it seems to be unattended much like the baby in Namibia. It also pees freely on the blankets and doesn't have any kind of diaper. At one point the mother put something with a match sticking through it in the babies mouth. I have no idea what this could have been but it was meant to give the baby something to suck on, which he seemed to enjoy. As for bath time, this baby was washed in a simple bucket of water. Unlike the first baby, there is a male presence here.

The movie then moves on to Tokyo, Japan. Here we see the mother breastfeed the baby and burp her as well. The mother wrote some Japanese symbols on this little babies feet which I found interesting. She is also seen taking the baby for a walk in the stroller and playing with a rattle to soothe the little one. In another scene, unlike the other two children, the baby is taken to some kind of daycare where she gets to interact with other children similar in age. This mother is very interactive with her little girl. Later in the documentary she takes her to a studio kind of place where there are other mothers singing, clapping, and moving with their babies. They also go on group walks in the strollers

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