Le PROSAMI, Part I, movie was presented tonight at our PROSAMI Board Meeting in the United States. Highlights of this very moving documentary, set in the Kasai Orientale region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, include: - A very malnourished woman, with little prenatal care, gives birth to FOUR babies at one time. She manages to make it to one of the larger clinics. The babies are premature but still alive. The babies are transported to a nearby clinic with more resources. Each nearby man or woman takes one of the babies in their arms, and they all get into one car and go into the larger village to find a better equipped clinic. No one is really attentive to the mother, she is expected to walk with the men / women carrying the babies. - Even at the clinic, there is no incubator, the four babies are piled together in a large wooden box lined with blankets. - The movie shows a mother dying and at the point of her death. She experienced persistent uterine bleeding. The only blood transfusion was another adult (there are no blood banks) and no adults came to her rescue. She had a stillbirth, and after evacuating the fetus, she continued to bleed. She came from a rural area 20 miles away.. no one knows how much of this she had to walk. She was moved to a larger clinic when her bleeding persisted and died shortly after arriving there. - The movie shows an operating room where a woman, who had been diagnosed as being “pregnant, “ after 11 months and no baby, was finally evaluated for a non-viable uterine mass, and found to have a 12 kg. uterine cyst. It was removed surgically. Her prenatal care, which was minimal, failed to pick this up. - The movie shows orphans sleeping in the streets of Mbuji-Mayi, flies land on their faces when they are sleeping. They eat whatever they can, and roam aimlessly in the Market places during the day. Their mothers died, most likely during childbirth. - The movie shows each of our 14 candidates for the Advanced Nurse midwife positions. Their enthusiasm and sincerity is striking. They want to make a difference, for their peers and for the next generation to come. They have courage, and need the material resources, knowledge, and financial backing to move ahead. PROSAMI will be the vehicle to do this. - The movie shows Dr. Mukendi, our Medical Director for PROSAMI, as he articulates the many facets of the training program. Eudoxie Kasekw, our Training Coordinator in the Congo, elaborates the timelines and infrastructure needed to successfully carry out PROSAMI vision. A very thoughtful and provocative documentary, which underscores the harsh reality of a very high death / morbidity rate for women and infants in this isolated, rural rain forest region of the CONGO. The documentary frames the potential progress and achievements in improved maternal health care if the advanced nurse midwifery training in the CONGO comes to pass. Stay tuned for the movie on PROSAMI.!!