Watch A Healthy Baby Girl

A Healthy Baby Girl is a moving documentary film about the devastating effects of exposure to DES, a synthetic estrogen drug once prescribed to pregnant women to prevent miscarriages, on the life of filmmaker Judith Helfand. The film provides a rare, intimate look at the ways in which medical innovations can have unintended consequences and the implications of those consequences for affected individuals and families.

The film opens with home movie footage of Helfand as a baby, followed by interviews with her mother, grandmother, and family friends who recount the story of her birth and early years. It is revealed that Helfand's mother was one of millions of women who took DES while pregnant with her, and that Helfand herself was an unintended but devastating consequence of that decision.

As the film progresses, Helfand chronicles her life as a DES daughter, from her childhood in suburban Long Island to her adolescence at an all-girls' boarding school to her early adulthood in the downtown arts scene of 1980s New York City. Throughout these chapters, Helfand grapples with the effects of DES on her body and psyche, from early puberty and menstrual irregularities to reproductive issues and cancer scares.

Along the way, Helfand becomes an advocate for DES awareness and accountability, speaking out about the drug's lasting effects and demanding justice for those affected. She attends conferences, meets with doctors and researchers, and becomes a spokesperson for the DES Action organization, all while continuing to grapple with her own health issues and fears.

The heart of the film, though, is Helfand's relationship with her mother, who slowly comes to realize the extent of the damage done by DES and the role she played in exposing her daughter to it. Through poignant conversations and raw emotion, Helfand and her mother grapple with guilt, regret, and the complexity of responsibility in the face of medical innovation gone wrong.

Ultimately, A Healthy Baby Girl is a powerful exploration of the ways in which medical innovation can have unintended consequences, and the impact of those consequences on individuals and families. By telling her own story with honesty and vulnerability, Helfand broadens the conversation about DES to include the human faces and stories behind the statistics and medical jargon. The film is a powerful reminder of the importance of transparency, accountability, and empathy in the world of science and medicine.

A Healthy Baby Girl is a 1997 documentary with a runtime of 58 minutes. It has received mostly positive reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 8.3.