....I would urge you to watch the PBS documentary, Motherland. It is part of their POV programming.
Sometimes I get so busy complaining about how things here in hospitals have changed for the worse over the past couple of decades, I forget just how terrible people in other part of the world have it, even for things as normal, usual and necessary as giving birth.
Motherland is a documentary film about the largest maternity hospital in the world in Manila, Philippines, Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital. I felt ill watching what those women go through in that baby birth factory, 2 to a single bed in the delivery room, in conditions so unhygienic it makes you wonder how any of the mothers or babies stay alive. The staff are obviously doing their best, but there are so many deliveries and space is so lacking despite the size of the building, no one can keep up. The whole ward is filled with women and babies that run the gamut of human suffering. The cost of staying in the hospital for as many days as is required for the moms to recover and to be taught how to nurse, swaddle and bathe their infants is prohibitive for what seems to be the majority of the families. Other than a kangaroo wrap, new moms are expected to bring their own baby blankets and other supplies with them to the hospital. A lot of sharing goes on among the new moms. The babies often leave the hospital to be brought up in large families cursed with abject poverty. The hospital staff is doing all it can to promote family planning but often their advice falls on deaf ears and fearful hearts.
I can honestly say this is one of the most depressing documentaries I have ever watched and yet, I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. Director Ramona S. Diaz has captured so well the suffering, the resignation to loss of hope, the fears of these women, their often under employed hubands and families. It is worth a look if the subject of human productive rights is one that interests you.
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