FILM - Access to maternal health services for indigenous women in Congo

With introduction by Her Excellency Jacqueline Lydia Mikolo, Minister of Health, Congo Brazzaville

This movie was made in Congo a few weeks ago by a talented team of documentary film makers.

It features the life experiences of a pregnant woman who had to deliver her first child in the forest alone, the mission of traditional birth attendants, but also the challenges and needs that midwives and doctors in a rural public hospital and a private clinic have to improve the quality of their work and provide better services.

The film also exposes the challenges that indigenous women particularly face during pregnancy and at child birth: remote health facilities, financial barriers, lack of quality of care, insufficient skilled staff availability, and scarce referral means, as well as experiencing an unfamiliar westernized environment with language and cultural barriers, stigma and even discrimination.

This movie is about two worlds dedicated to improve maternal health but that would require working together and learning from each other to better serve and save the lives of Bantou and indigenous women and newborns.

Documentary/Congo/French (English subtitles)/15 minutes/2019

Producer: Degree

Director: Chris Lekoula