Midwife

In the third programme in the series where British workers accept the challenge to do their jobs in some of the toughest conditions in the world, midwife Suzanne Saunders-Blundell abandons the high tech maternity unit at Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield to work in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia in West Africa.

This is the third poorest country on earth, where one in twelve women dies in childbirth. Suzanne, a fan of natural child birth back in Britain, soon learns that there is little time for such luxuries at the Redemption Hospital. On her first day she has to deal with a traumatic still birth and during her stay a young woman she has helped to care for dies in front of her. Yet by the end of her stay Suzanne is amazed and inspired by the strength of the Liberian midwives she lives and works with, who in turn are keen to learn from her.