00:02It might look like the moon, but it's something even more way out.
00:06It's a picture of a human fetus inside its mother's womb.
00:10In the 1950s, we shifted to thinking that anything medical was the preferred approach.
00:18When I was a nurse in labor and delivery, working night shift, I bought into all of it.
00:24Maternal mortality is dropping dramatically around the globe.
00:30The one exception, the United States, where the rate is actually rising.
00:35The U.S. is the most dangerous place in the affluent world to give birth.
00:41I know about misdiagnosis. I'm a two-time survivor of preeclampsia.
00:47For black women, it's become a literal life-or-death situation.
00:51I've never wanted to have any type of surgery. It's kind of like a fear for me.
00:56The statistics are unacceptable in a nation as technologically advanced as the United States.
01:03It goes back to listening to women.
01:07Nurse midwives are specialists in low risk.
01:10Technology is very important. Hospitals are very, very important.
01:15But I think that's a place for people who really need them. People with complications of pregnancies.
01:22But that's not the majority of pregnant women.
01:26Quite often, women, we care for so many people in our lives. We don't do a good job of caring
01:32for each other and caring for ourselves.
01:35Wanting that for more women was what motivated me to become a nurse midwife.
01:44This can't just be about birth. This is about life.
01:48I survived something tragic, I believe, to tell a story about it and to make a difference.
01:58There's so many wonderful things about having the power to choose how you give birth.
02:04I want women to have all the options.
02:08I was made for this.
02:13It's called labor for a reason, Fran. Are you going to work it out?
02:16They make it look so much easier.
02:18On TV, right? Yeah. Just have a baby. It's perfect.
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