Loading descriptions...
Updated episode: In Mozambique, where doctors are in short supply, a bold grassroots initiative is training midwives in advanced life-saving surgery.
News and Documentary Emmy Award nomination
In sub-Saharan Africa, where doctors are in short supply, a woman's
chances of dying in childbirth are a shocking 1 in 22. But in
Mozambique, a midwife named Emilia Cumbane is doing something
radical to stem the trend. She is part of an extraordinary
grassroots initiative in which midwives, otherwise untrained in
conventional medicine, are learning to perform advanced life-saving
surgery. Among the first of its kind in the world, Cumbane's
program may offer a working alternative to the life-threatening
lack of doctors in other developing countries. In this 2009 update,
WIDE ANGLE host Aaron Brown travels to a rural hospital in
Mozambique to meet with Cumbane to see how both she and the program
are faring.