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Hazardous deliveries
Perspectives
Film Hazardous deliveries
“…No Woman No Cry was filmed with respect and affection” elsewhere. Not many pregnant Masai women and Bangladeshi slum-dwellers have camera crews following them around, after all. In the end, when the women needed outside help, the film-makers rightly provided it. Janet hitches a ride to the hospital, Monica overcomes her scepticism, and both deliver safely at hospital. Viewers unfamiliar with the problem of maternal mortality cannot help but feel a little duped. If everything turned out OK for these two, then what’s the problem? In fact, the economic and cultural barriers to obstetric care that these two women face are, indeed, important contributors to the problem of preventable deaths in childbirth. But
the film does little more than gesture, with a few disjointed statistics, at how. The other segments, shot in the USA and Guatemala, are unsatisfying for different reasons. In the USA, we get an interview with a man whose wife bled to death after an amniotic fluid embolism, an understudied complication. In Guatemala, a pregnant clinician describes the problem of botched abortions in that heavily Catholic country. Skirting superficially on a range of complex cultural, economic, and scientific problems, it’s a bit of a hodge-podge. Viewers may feel more confused than enlightened. What the film does do well is capture the vitality and warmth of its subjects’ lives. It would have been easy to dwell on deprivations, but aside from a few gratuitous shots of a bloodied hospital floor, No Woman No Cry was filmed with respect and affection. These are strong, smart women and their modest huts and rag-tag slums are depicted as vibrant, loving places. It’s a welcome departure from the usual gloomy portrayal of impoverished women— and underlines the social devastation that their losses in childbirth can incur.
Alex Majoli/Magnum
because she needs to be induced at the local hospital, but is stuck miles away, with no money to hire a car to take her there. During delivery at home, Monica starts haemorrhaging. The film-makers’ decision to follow these cases prospectively, not knowing how their pregnancies would resolve, is admirable. But Janet and Monica’s stories could never be truly representative of poor women
No Woman No Cry Directed by Christy Turlington Burns. Turly Pictures Inc, 2010. http:www. nowomannocrythemovie.com Find out more at http://www. everymothercounts.org
Sonia Shah [email protected]
Dallas Brennan Rexer
The documentary No Woman No Cry, directed by Christy Turlington Burns, opens with clips of the supermodel herself heavily pregnant with her first child. Fearful of an over-medicalised experience at hospital, she wanted to deliver her baby at home. But like many women around the world, after delivery, Turlington Burns started to haemorrhage. Unlike many women around the world, she received prompt medical care at a well equipped birthing centre. And she survived. Hundreds of thousands of other women don’t. No Woman No Cry is Turlington Burns’ exploration of preventable deaths in pregnancy and childbirth. Shot on four continents, the most compelling parts follow impoverished women during the final, harrowing days of their pregnancies. Janet, pregnant with her third child, ekes out a living in a Masai village in Tanzania, and must walk 5 miles to the local clinic, which is little more than a few bare rooms with cots. In an urban slum in Bangladesh, Monica is pregnant with her second child. She is eager to deliver at home with a traditional birth attendant, despite being told by a community health worker that she is past her due date. Circumstances soon grow fraught. Janet is turned away from the clinic
www.thelancet.com Vol 375 June 5, 2010
1959
Film Hazardous deliveries
“…No Woman No Cry was filmed with respect and affection” elsewhere. Not many pregnant Masai women and Bangladeshi slum-dwellers have camera crews following them around, after all. In the end, when the women needed outside help, the film-makers rightly provided it. Janet hitches a ride to the hospital, Monica overcomes her scepticism, and both deliver safely at hospital. Viewers unfamiliar with the problem of maternal mortality cannot help but feel a little duped. If everything turned out OK for these two, then what’s the problem? In fact, the economic and cultural barriers to obstetric care that these two women face are, indeed, important contributors to the problem of preventable deaths in childbirth. But
the film does little more than gesture, with a few disjointed statistics, at how. The other segments, shot in the USA and Guatemala, are unsatisfying for different reasons. In the USA, we get an interview with a man whose wife bled to death after an amniotic fluid embolism, an understudied complication. In Guatemala, a pregnant clinician describes the problem of botched abortions in that heavily Catholic country. Skirting superficially on a range of complex cultural, economic, and scientific problems, it’s a bit of a hodge-podge. Viewers may feel more confused than enlightened. What the film does do well is capture the vitality and warmth of its subjects’ lives. It would have been easy to dwell on deprivations, but aside from a few gratuitous shots of a bloodied hospital floor, No Woman No Cry was filmed with respect and affection. These are strong, smart women and their modest huts and rag-tag slums are depicted as vibrant, loving places. It’s a welcome departure from the usual gloomy portrayal of impoverished women— and underlines the social devastation that their losses in childbirth can incur.
Alex Majoli/Magnum
because she needs to be induced at the local hospital, but is stuck miles away, with no money to hire a car to take her there. During delivery at home, Monica starts haemorrhaging. The film-makers’ decision to follow these cases prospectively, not knowing how their pregnancies would resolve, is admirable. But Janet and Monica’s stories could never be truly representative of poor women
No Woman No Cry Directed by Christy Turlington Burns. Turly Pictures Inc, 2010. http:www. nowomannocrythemovie.com Find out more at http://www. everymothercounts.org
Sonia Shah [email protected]
Dallas Brennan Rexer
The documentary No Woman No Cry, directed by Christy Turlington Burns, opens with clips of the supermodel herself heavily pregnant with her first child. Fearful of an over-medicalised experience at hospital, she wanted to deliver her baby at home. But like many women around the world, after delivery, Turlington Burns started to haemorrhage. Unlike many women around the world, she received prompt medical care at a well equipped birthing centre. And she survived. Hundreds of thousands of other women don’t. No Woman No Cry is Turlington Burns’ exploration of preventable deaths in pregnancy and childbirth. Shot on four continents, the most compelling parts follow impoverished women during the final, harrowing days of their pregnancies. Janet, pregnant with her third child, ekes out a living in a Masai village in Tanzania, and must walk 5 miles to the local clinic, which is little more than a few bare rooms with cots. In an urban slum in Bangladesh, Monica is pregnant with her second child. She is eager to deliver at home with a traditional birth attendant, despite being told by a community health worker that she is past her due date. Circumstances soon grow fraught. Janet is turned away from the clinic
www.thelancet.com Vol 375 June 5, 2010
1959