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  • - Child birth is one of the most remarkable

  • and dramatic events the human body can undergo.

  • The strain on the muscles, organs, bones

  • among others is immense.

  • However, not everyone has a privilege of being able

  • to access the care that's needed.

  • Globally, maternal mortality

  • is the leading cause of death among women and girls

  • of reproductive age.

  • In fact, the US has the worst

  • infant and maternal mortality rate

  • of any high resource country

  • but a slow resource countries like Zambia

  • that women are hit the hardest.

  • In Zambia, pregnant women in rural areas

  • consistently deal with limited medical care

  • and as a result often have poor maternal outcomes.

  • This film draws us into the world of one of those mothers

  • as she courageously embarks on her journey

  • to successfully deliver her child.

  • This is "With Grace"

  • from National Geographic Explorer, Austin Meyer.

  • - [Grace] Amen.

  • - Though,

  • Can even take overnight sometimes

  • a day can pass or two.

  • After the night that I examined Grace

  • so I went home to catch up some rest.

  • (feet clattering)

  • Around 23 hours I heard a knock at my door.

  • Two women were knocking.

  • They said they brought a woman in labor.

  • So I thought maybe it was Grace until they explained no,

  • it's just another woman who's come for labor.

  • (men speaking in foreign language)

  • (feet clattering)

  • After examining, that's when

  • I saw that this is a serious case.

  • The fetal heart was less than 100.

  • The baby was in distress.

  • (slow music)

  • So I had to call the ambulance, though, due to

  • network failure, the lines wouldn't go through.

  • The head was delivered and the shoulders couldn't rotate.

  • when the baby came out, it couldn't cry.

  • When the baby aspirated meconium,

  • there was no suction machine.

  • There was only a penguin sucker

  • which wouldn't go deep and remove those secretions.

  • I had to ambubag the baby,

  • but without good effect, the baby died.

  • (dramatic music)

  • (birds chirping)

  • (people speaking in foreign language)

  • (water splashes)

  • (utensils clattering)

  • - 1984.

  • (feet clattering)

  • In a seven month.

  • - My name is Peter Hachiswenya.

  • I'm 55 years old now.

  • I'm a farmer.

  • I normally grow maize, groundnuts,

  • green beans and some tomato.

  • I'm married to Grace Chibilika

  • and I've stayed with my wife for now 16 years.

  • And I have four children with her.

  • The fifth is not yet born yes.

  • (laughing)

  • (girl chuckles)

  • - To my first wife I've got five children.

  • They were supposed to be eight,

  • but the three died at an early age of their ages.

  • The first born daughter was Memory.

  • She had malaria.

  • She died at the age of four years.

  • When I lost my second born,

  • I almost lost my life 'cause it thanked me a lot.

  • Friends came to advise me,

  • to those other friends that also lost their children.

  • "Why should you lose your life

  • just because of this what has happened to you?"

  • Then the third one, immediately she was delivered,

  • she only stayed maybe one hour 30 minutes

  • then the infant died.

  • To experience death at that age,

  • you see your friend playing with his baby, I only thought

  • "Why always on me when my friends

  • are keeping their children?"

  • But I never took up my life.

  • I don't lose my faith 'cause I know that death is there.

  • What I only did was to get more advises

  • on how to keep my children

  • and that's what I'm still doing now.

  • (slow music)

  • (woman speaks in foreign language)

  • - So please, I beg.

  • - Ah-ah.

  • - [Man] Labor?

  • - Plastic, number one.

  • Yeah, for Katoba clinic there

  • are about four professional staff

  • working for maybe attending to the population of 10,061.

  • The clinic officer midwife and a nurse.

  • The other one is an EHT.

  • (speaks in foreign language)

  • - In labor ward we need a lot of instruments.

  • We need a resuscitator

  • in case the baby is born with asphyxia

  • we resuscitate the baby.

  • We need a suction machine.

  • We need catheters to empty the woman's bladder

  • when they're in labor.

  • We need sterilization machine.

  • But for here at Katoba, we do not have those instruments.

  • This building it has solar lighting.

  • So in the rainy seasons

  • we have to use our phones for lighting.

  • We learn to improvise 'cause when there are no things,

  • at least you you try to think

  • instead of letting a woman to suffer.

  • - This clinic is just for normal deliveries.

  • Any complicated delivery just has to be referred.

  • - If the nurse notices that something has gone wrong

  • then the nurse will call the hospital

  • for an ambulance to go and pick the patient.

  • - Okay, can I just call the ambulance then?

  • Okay we go.

  • (speaks in foreign language)

  • (ambulance sirens wailing)

  • Right now, we're responding to a call

  • at Kanakantapa Rural Health Center,

  • which is about 10 kilometers away from the main hospital.

  • They're calling us for an antepartum hemorrhage.

  • (dramatic music)

  • Good morning my sister.

  • - How are you? - I'm okay, I think.

  • (dramatic music)

  • (mumbles)

  • And they have to come to a hospital

  • where there's facilities for theater,

  • and so then intervene by doing a cesarean section.

  • (upbeat music)

  • - So we have a big challenge

  • because we have 39 facilities

  • being serviced by one ambulance.

  • A population of close to 200,000 people.

  • And these facilities are not concentrated in one place.

  • To go in to Katoba, which is one of our farthest facilities,

  • it takes about one hour 30 minutes.

  • We have this huge challenge.

  • The nurse calls for an ambulance in facility X,

  • which is 50 kilometers away,

  • says, "This woman is bleeding."

  • And then we have another nurse

  • calling from another facility

  • says, "I have another one who has failed to deliver."

  • So now we are left with a dilemma

  • because you have to decide

  • where do you go to pick the patient?

  • (upbeat music)

  • (birds chirping)

  • (feet clattering)

  • (radio music playing)

  • - [Voicemail] The mobile subscriber you have

  • dialed has their phone switched off.

  • - Oh my God.

  • (knocks)

  • The Bruce.

  • (dog barking)

  • (mumbles)

  • (groans)

  • (prays in foreign language)

  • (Grace groans)

  • (

  • (girl laughs)

  • (laughs) - Okay.

  • I think if I have a daughter

  • who has completed school, maybe she goes up to college.

  • She might become a president.

  • She might become a minister.

  • She might become a doctor.

  • (Children speaking in foreign language)

  • (speaks in foreign language)

  • (speaks in foreign language)

  • - [Interviewer] Do you plan to have more kids

  • after this one?

  • - No, I am not planning.

  • I think this will be the last kid.

  • - [Interviewer] Why do you think this is the last one?

  • - There are enough that I have us at now.

  • ( laughs)

  • (laughs)

  • - Yeah.

  • (hopeful music)

  • - Yes.

  • (slow music)

  • (laughs)

  • - Watching this film

  • I think something that has brought me some memories.

  • Pamela is three ,seven months.

  • She is attending nursery school.

  • - A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H

  • (hopeful music)

  • (upbeat music)

- Child birth is one of the most remarkable

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