As if losing a child after an eternity of obstructed labor wasn't enough, fistula injuries leave women permanently incontinent, ashamed and alone. Ayehu, 25, has lived in a makeshift shack behind her mother's house where she has hidden for four years, shunned by siblings and neighbors alike. Her story is told in A Walk to Beautiful, the first feature film that informs about the silent epidemic of obstetric fistula in rural and impoverished regions.
A Walk to Beautiful (2007), A Documentary by Mary Olive Smith
With deeply personal dramas and breathtaking cinematography, the award-winning A Walk to Beautiful follows five Ethiopian women suffering from obstetric fistula on the journey from their remote villages to Catherine Hamlin's Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa. After a traumatic childbirth experience, the women were left with a stillborn baby and feeling, as Ayehu tells in the film, that "even death would be better than this." At the hospital they realize, that they can receive treatment and that they are not the only ones afflicted with the terrible condition. The film tracks the women's progress and reports on each woman's outcome.
Obstetric Fistula is a Silent Epidemic
In developing countries women with fistulas find their lives effectively over. They are often divorced from their husbands, and because they emit a terrible odor from dribbling urine and feces, they are forced to live in a hut by themselves on the edge of town. Many starve to death or die of infections.
"The fistula patient is the modern-day leper," says Ruth Kennedy, a British nurse-midwife who works at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. "The reason these women are pariah is because they are women. If this happened to men, we would have foundations and supplies coming in from all over the world."
Motherland Afghanistan (2007)
In Motherland Afghanistan writer/director Sedika Mojadidi follows her ob/gyn father, Dr. Qudrat Mojadidi, as he returns to Afghanistan to reform medical care in a country where one in seven women die in childbirth. With an estimated 1,800 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, Afghanistan has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.
Dr. Mojadidi attempts to rehabilitate the largest women's hospital in the country with the promised support of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The promised equipment and supplies never arrive and Dr. Mojadidi resigns from his position. Two years later he journeys to Afghanistan again to train staff at a large rural hospital - this time he works for an NGO.
Educational Materials on Maternal Health in Ethiopia and Afghanistan
Both films are available on Netflix. Excerpts can be viewed instantly via links from their official websites. There are signs that the situation in Afghanistan improved slightly, since UNICEF, USAID and NGOs support midwife training programs throughout the country. Both films are excellent educational tools on reproductive health in developing countries. More information is available:
- The NOVA website offers a teacher's guide to A Walk to Beautiful
- The Fistula Foundation provides a Take Action Guide (PDF)
- Watch UNICEF television on YouTube : Midwife Training in Afghanistan
One hundred percent of the profits from the sale of A Walk to Beautiful benefit the Fistula Foundation, a nonprofit that supports the training of midwives in Ethiopia.
A Walk to Beautiful The Film's Official Website.
Motherland Afghanistan Independent Lens Website
Read more about women in Afghanistan:
Dr. Sakena Yacoobi Educates Women and Girls in Afghanistan
References:
Kristof, Nicholas D., WuDunn Sheryl. Half the Sky. New York: Random Hause, 2009. Print.
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