American Delivery

Sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands. A community of nurses, primarily from Cleveland and Dayton, set out to correct a disturbing fact—the United States has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the developed world, especially among women of color—by directly engaging with our broken healthcare system and the mothers who fall through the cracks.

In the U.S., more women die in childbirth than any other wealthy nation. With a mortality rate ten times that of Europe (where prenatal and postpartum visits, universal healthcare, paid family leave, and nurse midwives attending most births are standards of maternal care), the U.S. must do better. As the crisis worsens, and even more so for women of color, nurses are leading the charge to standardize care in hospitals and looking to midwives and birthing centers to be part of America’s birth story. By listening to women’s individual needs and providing crucial mental health support, healthcare providers across the country—including Cleveland’s MetroHealth System—are making meaningful strides in the communities they serve. Emotional and hopeful, AMERICAN DELIVERY follows pregnant mothers on their unique birth journeys from pregnancy, through childbirth, through the postpartum period to reveal the joys, fears, and reality of what it means to give birth in America. —A.B.

This film is presented at CIFF48 in loving memory of MAE HELEN PATRICK, whose favorite quote was “Be all that you can be and don’t forget to pray.”

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