“A Walk to Beautiful” tells the stories of rural women who make their way to Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, seeking treatment for obstetric fistula, a life-shattering complication of childbirth that was once common in the pre-industrial United States but that is now relegated to the poorest regions of the world.

Women with small pelvises, whether through malnutrition, overwork, or because they married too young, are most at risk, since there is often not room for the baby to emerge during birth. The result can be an obstructed labor that may last up to 10 days, a stillborn child, and a trauma-induced hole, or fistula, in the vaginal wall that produces chronic incontinence.

The women profiled in “A Walk to Beautiful” are treated as virtual lepers in their villages, where they are shunned by family and made to live alone. One women admits to contemplating suicide.

Through chance they learn that there are other women who share their affliction, and that the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital exists to help them — if they can manage to walk for hours to the nearest road, find public transport to the capital, and then search out the hospital in a strange and forbidding city.

Women’s health disparities throughout the world

To learn more on disparities in women’s health worldwide, visit Two Worlds at Nova online. There, you can also follow the stages of normal labor and delivery, and learn about potential problems that can arise as well as treatments used to cope with them.

Ethiopian famine

By the mid-1980s, persistent drought, depleted harvests, and civil war contributed to a ruinous famine that affected large swaths of northern Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government was unable or unwilling to deal with the crisis, and their delayed appeal for outside assistance and resistance to providing food aid to victims in areas where they were battling insurgents put millions at risk for starvation, disease, and death. Learn more…

Ethiopian highlands

Hailed as the “cradle of humanity,” Ethiopia boasts a human history that dates back millions of years. At its heart lie the Ethiopian Highlands. Discover Ethiopia’s rich landscape, from the Blue Nile to the Great Rift Valley.

“A Walk to Beautiful” airs tonight at 8pm on Thirteen. After broadcast, it will be available to watch online. For more information, visit Nova online.