“We follow The Danish Obstetrician, Maria Milland, on her first posting with Médicins Sans Frontières and get close to her considerations and challenges working with maternity complications using ALSO-techniques.”

Save Mom – ALSO in Africa’ is a 24 minutes documentary done in collaboration with Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF) and with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark / Danida.

WHO estimates that 300,000 women died during pregnancy or childbirth in 2015. 99% of these women lived in developing countries. ‘Save Mom – ALSO in Africa’ addresses the problems around woman maternity/delivery in developing countries. And it shows how simple obstetric techniques can save a life. We experience this through our main character, Dr. Maria Milland, and we get close to her thoughts, considerations and challenges when working with maternity complications in Katiola, Ivory Coast.

‘Save Mom – ALSO in Africa’ follows the Danish Obstetrician, Maria Milland, on her first posting with Médicins Sans Frontières to the Ivory Coast. Before her posting, Maria attends ALSO-training at the MSF offices in Copenhagen. ‘ALSO’ is short for Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics – it’s a three-day intensive and challenging course. We follow Maria when she faces the reality of pregnant woman in the Ivory Coast and has to use her ALSO-techniques at the maternity ward in Katiola Hospital.

The purpose of ‘Save Mom – ALSO in Africa’ is to create awareness about maternal mortality issues in general and to tell about how simple obstetrics knowledge and techniques can make a difference. Initially ‘Save Mom – ALSO in Africa’ will inspire other NGO’s and decision makers to learn from this course and the Médicins Sans Frontières experiences.

• Film Type: Documentary
• Runtime: 24 minutes
• Completion Date: April 20, 2016
• Production Budget: 17,000 USD
  
• Country of Origin: Denmark
• Country of Filming: Côte d’Ivoire, Denmark
• Film Language: Danish, (English Subtittle) & English
  
• Shooting Format: Digital (Apple Prores HQ)
• Aspect Ratio: 16:9
• Film Color: Color

• Thomas Fink: Director
  

• Thomas Fink: Writer
  

• Mikkel Sangstad: Writer
  

• Thomas Fink: Producer
  

• Anne-Sofie Munk (Médicins Sans Frontières): Producer
  

• Selay Marius Kouassi (Local Producer, Ivory Coast): Producer
  

• Mikkel Sangstad: Producer
  

• Mikkel Sangstad: Editing
  

• Dr. Maria Milland (Obstetrician, Master of International Health): Key Cast
  

• Dr. Bjarke Lund Sørensen (Obstetrician, Ph.D, ALSO Instructor at Médecins Sans Frontières): Key Cast

• Catrin Schulte-Hillen (Midwife, Master of Public Health, Reproductive health and sexual violence care Working Group Leader at Médecins Sans Frontières: Key Cast