Motherland

This documentary is about as real as it gets in depicting daily life at the Fabella Memorial Hospital, Manila. Personally, I prefer that there was no narration or formal interviews, just a series of vignettes following these women as they make their way through the hospital experience. Allowing the mothers and their care-givers to show their humor and resilience in the face of tremendous social challenges gave the most powerful statement that could have been made. Definitely use the subtitle function unless you speak Tagalog (I assume).

There is a lot to unpack after watching this film. Poverty, healthcare access, women’s rights, and political discord between the government and church are all explored without lecturing the viewer, allowing them to draw their own conclusions. The cinema verite style allows the powerful stories to speak for themselves, however it also affects the cohesiveness of the narrative. Perhaps different editing and organization of the footage would’ve been helpful in this regard.What could’ve been a very depressing film was tempered by moments of warmth, levity and even humor. As a westerner accustomed to a level of cleanliness, privacy and professionalism in interactions with the healthcare system, the conditions in this facility are shocking, and difficult to watch at times. As a mother who had children in an American NICU, it was heartbreaking to see preterm infants struggle and suffer without access to durable medical equipment that is standard in our country.I also found it difficult to watch these postpartum women, exhausted and having just gone through childbirth, be coerced to the point of bullying into tubal ligations and IUD insertion against their religious beliefs. The employees counseling these women are clearly frustrated by seeing impoverished women go through back to back pregnancies. That’s not an excuse for not respecting these vulnerable women’s bodily autonomy. It’s a complicated issue, and I’m biased as a practicing Catholic, but I’d like to see these women taught modern methods of NFP. It isn’t the rhythm method of the past and is an effective, low cost, no side effect method of spacing births that is acceptable within the Catholic Faith.I recommend watching this documentary regardless of where you stand on these issues. It will stay with you long after viewing.

First of all - these nurses, aides, doctors, residents are the real heroes here. They do their work very professionally and deal kindly & are very helpful for these soon to be mothers. In spite of the overcrowding, the heat (even in the delivery room I saw 2 "not working" signs posted on the AC units) I didn't see any complaining by these workers and they did their best under the trying circumstances.I was born in the Philippines & stayed there 32 years before immigrating to the US & now that I'm retired I'm returning to the Philippines. So I can totally relate to what is being shown. We were not rich but we were much better off than practically all these women shown. And having experienced life in the US I have mixed emotions watching this. I admire the dedication of the medical staff & at the same time I feel a little guilty because I was definitely a LOT MORE fortunate than these women. It makes me a lot more grateful for all the blessings that God had bestowed on me & my family.The Philippines has an overpopulation problem. In a country slightly bigger than Arizona & smaller than New Mexico there are over 100 million people mostly crowded in the cities. Religious influence & cultural traditions have to an extent prevented a coherent population control strategy. As in a typical developing country corruption & inconsistent economic policy has hindered economic growth. But in spite of these problems it is very encouraging to see a group of workers totally dedicated to their jobs & it makes me proud to be Filipino American. They are an inspiration to me & I'm sure to others who have seen this.

Wow, this was really fascinating. The hospital itself is quite something to see. Two moms to a bed, announcements, people assigned numbers, it feels like you're watching some twilight zone birthing boot camp. The KMC (kangaroo mother care) unit was prominently featured in the documentary, apparently these are babies that would be in incubators in the US but the doctors at the hospital have found a way to simulate it to a degree since they do not have the funding to afford incubators. It's quite interesting to watch and see how different it is. There are a couple sad reminders of how the lack of funding affects the babies and families; one father who has a KMC baby is speaking to another father about how his previous child had been in KMC but died of a blood infection.The doctors and nurses are very impressive working well with what they have and recognizing ways to improve society. They push family planning not abortions but IUDs or birth control- I get the sense they push for the IUD because it's cheaper and more effective. Most of the people coming through the hospital seem to already have multiple children, five, six, seven.... one family is featured that only has three- the mother gave birth to surprise twins and we see a 17 year old who gives her first birth. There are many births in the documentary obviously. The bill system was quite fascinating as well; people can't leave if they haven't found a way to pay a bill or get help even if they've been medically discharged.The picture of the baby is the 100th million Filipino and, wow, was it a popular story, tons of camera. This documentary is definitely worth anyone's time.