Short Film: A Mother’s Love

Viewed at the 2020 IVFAF. Sometimes, when it comes to short films, simplicity is the best strategy. A Mother’s Love comes out just shy of the 5-minute mark and was directed by Adam H Stewart. I’d guess this was a 2020 release but there is no IMDb page at the time of writing.

The film concentrates on a mother (Dee Stewart) who is sat folding nappies as her daughter Florence sleeps off camera, a baby monitor sits on the table. The mother tells us about the birth and her experience of new motherhood. Some things don’t chime well at first, however.

Dee Stewart as the mother

She speaks about the hope for a child, despite her difficulties conceiving, and suggests that her sister told her to stay away from the hospital – but provided her with herbs and a pocket watch for good luck – as she had a home birth with birthing pool. Her sister apparently knows more about what is going on than the mother, as her conversation comes back to her suggesting that she feed the baby blood when she wouldn’t latch on. All well and good, we think as she hears the baby stir and goes upstairs, but what happens when the baby teethes…