No Woman No Cry

Today I was lucky enough to receive a complimentary ticket for the screening of No Woman No Cry written and directed by Model turned documentary filmaker Christy Turlington Burns. It was presented by the McLaughlin-Rothman Centre for Global Health (see them here) and Grand Challenges Canada (see them here) at the Bell Lightbox. Inspired by a traumatic experience post-partum in a U.S. hospital, Burns was awakened to the reality of maternal health in the States and around the world.

See the trailer here:

The film shows the experience of three women (in Tanzania, Bangladesh, and Guatamala) and relates it to the dire situation of maternal health care in the U.S., especially given the lack of health insurance. It was quite a beautiful film and shows a simple but powerful introduction to the topic. Some of the health professionals were truly inspiring, in their immense efforts to overcome such a huge feat.

I was relieved when, while in Guatamala, the topic of safe abortions was presented as a reproductive health issue because it just slightly out-shadowed the facilitator during the panel gush over how our Prime Minister had organized a whole conference about Maternal Health. Though, the crowd was certainly not quiet after the latter comment was made and I couldn't hold back a loud cough.

Unfortunately, the panel discussion was only half an hour and really did not leave enough space to discuss any issues at any great depth beyond the bottomline message that everyone should "get involved" with little indication of what that meant, beyond visiting the website: http://www.everymothercounts.org/.

For those who would like to watch the movie, it is said to be airing on the Oprah Winfrey Network in the near future.

There was also quite a lovely Martha Wainwright cover of Bob Marley's No Woman No Cry.

Film photo from http://mrc-nowomannocry.ca/