Thank you Injoy Video for creating a video for our midwifery practice. It was so generous of you to donate so much of your time and expertise! We always enjoy working with you and continue to be impressed with the quality of your educational videos and professionalism! Merrilynn
A Walk to Beautiful is a film that reinforces how fortunate we are in the United States to have access to medical intervention in birth when it is needed and also highlights how important healthy diet is for childbearing.
The film takes place in Ethiopia where women suffer frequently from a birth injury called a fistula. One reason a fistula occurs is when labor is prolonged and the baby presses on the vaginal wall and pelvic floor for an extended period of time. This prolonged compression creates a whole between the vagina and bladder or vagina and rectum causing urine or feces to leak from the vagina. The women who suffer from this injury typically live in a remote area without access to a hospital. The other reason this occurs for Ethiopian women is because of malnutrition and excessive physical labor (some begin hauling heavy water buckets by the age of 2 or 3) that causes the body and bone structure to not develop appropriately creating a true disproportion between the baby’s head and the woman’s pelvis.
Women who suffer from fistula are isolated from their communities due to the inability to maintain good hygiene and can often suffer from infection and death if this injury is not surgically repaired. These women’s lives are also ruined socially because they are shunned from their communities and live in a hut away from others. The doctors that created the fistula clinic in Ethiopia repair about 1000 birth injuries per year and this only touches on the problem. Many women have returned to their communities after the surgery and have lived healthy, productive lives.
The scenery in this video in breathtaking and the subject matter brings tears to your eyes. It makes you realize that we are fortunate to be able to have access to doctors who can perform cesarean sections in a timely way if that is what needs to happen in order to get the baby out so that mom and baby are healthy. It also made me feel grateful that we have can have access to healthy, nutritious foods that help our bodies develop well.
I always tell women that we do everything we can to avoid cesarean section due to inherent risks of surgery but if it is needed, be grateful that there is an escape hatch door #2!
Here is a link to the ‘A Walk to Beautiful’ web site to find out more or purchase the video: http://www.walktobeautiful.com/