A Walk To Beautiful

A friend recommended that I watch "A Walk to Beautiful" and this weekend I watched it (on Netflix).

First of all - wow. This documentary is about women in Ethiopia, and their journey to recovery after delivering stillborn babies due to improper medical care, resulting in obstetric fistula. The lack of medical care, and incredibly long labors (some 10 days) caused fistula, which involves constant urine leaking. The women become shunned from their families, husbands, villages.

"The World Health Organization has called fistula "the single most dramatic aftermath of neglected childbirth", estimating that more than 2 million women live with fistula worldwide. But, it fears even this number may be a gross underestimate" (taken from Walk to Beautiful website).

There is a hospital that treats these women, and they can perform a surgery to fix the leaking. When the women finally make it to the hospital, they are in awe that others have the same condition, and that they have have hope to live a normal life. It was such a picture of the gospel as the women were each redeemed/ fixed, and given new beautiful clothes now that they would no longer leak.

Some facts taken from their website about obstetric fistula include:

Fast Facts

• For every woman who dies from pregnancy-related complications, 20 women survive but experience terrible injuries and disabilities.
• In Ethiopia, there are 59 OB/GYNs and 1,000 midwives for a population of 77 million.
• One woman dies from pregnancy-related complications every minute worldwide; 95% of them live in Africa and Asia.
• More than 99% of The Fistula Hospital patients are illiterate. (The hospital teaches all patients the Amharic Fideles and the Oromiyffa alphabets.)
• Number of patients treated at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital every year: 1,200
• Number of obstetric fistula cases occurring in Ethiopia alone each year: 9,000
• Number of new obstetric fistula cases resulting from childbirth occurring worldwide each year: 100,000
• Number of new obstetric fistula cases resulting from childbirth occurring in the U.S. each year: 0
• The year the last U.S. hospital treating fistula patients closed its doors: 1895.

I was so humbled during this movie. These women are precious, beloved daughters of God Almighty. The difficulties, shame, and heartache that these women have gone through break my heart. I am thankful that I watched this film, because it gave me even deeper respect for the women in Ethiopia, and I know of even more ways to pray for our child's birth mother.

I encourage you to check it out. It is a PBS documentary and the website is www.walktobeautiful.com. It is only one hour long.

Warning: It is a little graphic, so don't watch it with kids around.