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A Walk to Beautiful (2007)
Directed by Mary Olive Smith and Amy Bucher
Engel Entertainment (85-minute version), walktobeautiful.com
PBS / NOVA (54-minute version), pbs.org/wgbh/nova/beautiful/
Obstetric fistulas remain largely unknown to women living in Western Europe, Canada, and the United States, where medical care or other professional assistance such as midwives is available to women before, during, and after childbirth. In parts of the world where medical care remains unavailable, however, this problem is much more common. Obstetric fistulas develop during obstructed childbirth, when a baby's larger head exerts pressure on a woman's smaller pelvis, cutting off the blood supply and damaging tissues. In obstructed childbirth, women without access to regular medical care endure labor for ten days, with the baby dying in the process. As the damaged internal tissues die, they leave behind holes called fistulas. These fistulas often occur between a woman's bladder and vagina or between a woman's vagina and rectum, resulting in permanent incontinence of urine, feces, or both. In addition to the health problems fistulas create, these women endure public shunning from their spouses and families, and personal humiliation. But this traumatic condition can be resolved in part through surgery and education, at least according to Mary Olive Smith and Amy Bucher's documentary A Walk to Beautiful. The 54-minute NOVA version chronicles the journey from shame to dignity for three Ethiopian women suffering...