Nance Ackerman’s The Delivery Line: Midwives on the Frontlines is as important as it is unmissable – a crucial documentary that follows five exceptional women who show us that there is far more to midwifery than we could imagine.
Inside makeshift tents on the US-Mexico border, across the resource-scarce areas of northern Nigeria, and in the encampment parks and shelters of Toronto, the high-risk neighbourhoods of Colombia, and the remote mountainous regions of Afghanistan, courageous midwives are risking their own safety and well-being to attend to expectant mothers. Through astounding access to these precarious environments and to the dedicated women working with scant resources and minimal support. The ever-evolving risks and high stakes of each place are where the midwives navigate care with traditional medicine and enduring native healing practices.
Filmed over eight years, Nancy Ackerman delivers a thoughtful yet incisive look at how, despite the challenges faced around the world, life is continually brought into the world thanks to the work of countless midwives who endure so much just to ensure that women can give birth as safely as possible. Together with Co-director of photography Glauco Bermudez, they expertly film our midwives in action, perfectly judging when to be close with their camera and when to take that necessary step back.
They capture beautiful moments such as midwives talking softly to the baby and mother while the baby is still in the womb. You see the mothers relax in these moments, perhaps for the first time in many weeks, as they are told the next steps and how well their child is doing.
In The Delivery Line, we also have harrowing moments like when a mother begins to lose too much blood after birth, it’s chaotic and nerve-wracking, yet for our calm midwife, controlling the situation, even if they admit inside they were panicking. The importance of capturing these moments, often in conditions where they should not be happening, is remarkable. They consistently leave you speechless at how they navigate their surroundings to provide such fantastic care.
Usually, in a review with multiple participants, I would pick and choose between them to highlight; however, in a film like The Delivery Line, it feels far more apt to give time to each of our five heroines. In fact, there is probably enough footage from Ackerman to make a film about each participant. Instead, we are given these short glimpses that compel you.
Gulbadan is a young midwife in a remote region of Afghanistan who has been working with the most basic equipment as she waits for years for newer equipment that will help so many women in the villages around her. So remote is her village that people have to clear snow from the mountain tracks to get onto the main mountain road safely. How does Gulbadan get around? She walks off, of course, making each day a treacherous endeavour; couple this with the fact that she qualified just before she would have been banned from training as a midwife, and we see one of many women who are the last hopes for a country with one of the highest mortality rates for childbirth. With midwives like Gulbadan, this particular region can feel a bit safer.
Ximena is there for anyone, but has found, with the sheer amount of migrants trying to get into the United States, individually and in caravans, that inevitably, there will be pregnant women there. She sees how little help they receive and simply cannot face that, so with her pamphlets, she continually tries to get the word out. To let these women and families know they are not alone in this, and even if their route is currently blocked by a giant fence, that they will still get treated, that they are still seen as humans in a society that has tried to forget them. Her soft tone with the mothers fills your heart. You can see how some of these women are surprised by the kindness and gentleness and are not prepared for it. The fact that she can even implement her holistic approach, at times, in the back of a van, is proof of goodness in a world of chaos.
Hamsatu has faced many challenges in her career and indeed her life, moving and returning to her clinic in Nigeria. You can feel the joy she has in seeing a healthy child born in her clinic, or even out of it. Having delivered 1000s of babies, she has seen it all and even jokes about how she has witnessed some mothers during the birthing, comparing those who scream with those who keep it all internal. She does so much for the community, but the fear is always strong for her. She does not fully know what the next day will bring, but if she is able, she will make sure a child is safe.
Possibly the most charismatic of the group we weave through, Maria is all personality; that commanding presence wins you over immediately. Limited in what she can offer in Colombia to ease the pain, she conjures a concoction of Tomaseca and offers it to one of the crew, saying it helps relieve stress. Behind this personality, though, is a woman who knows the dangers of women travelling to their midwife, so she goes to them, always moving around to check on how her patients are doing. In the face of manned and gunned checkpoints, she shows no fear. She is here for the women in her community, and there is no denying her. Her matriarchal demeanour is one everyone would want around them. A steady hand in a country in great strife.
Toronto resident Jay now has a van to conduct her examinations and treatments of the homeless pregnant female residents of the city. She didn’t always have it. In fact, this courageous woman, who is getting treated for cancer, would haul her equipment around the city. Her battles are not with warring clans or remote villages but with the city itself. She helps these women, gives them the advice they need. Yet the women are often afraid to go to their scheduled doctor or social care appointments for fear of their homes being raided and stolen from them.
So they stay and either have their children taken from them (and one of the routes out of homelessness) or become ill due to not getting the treatment they need. Jay does everything she can for these women, almost acting as a counsellor rather than a midwife. Making sure she is there as that one positive voice the person hears. It’s considerably different from what we see throughout The Delivery Line, but again shows how systems fail those who need it most, and Ackerman never lets us forget that.
The manner in which all five women persist with their duty and care is astounding to watch. They will have seen things many of us could never imagine, and yet they keep going, like Gulbadan, who are early in their careers in comparison to Maria; their passion and strength remain the same. The Delivery Line is a fantastic must-watch documentary.
★★★★★
The Delivery Line: Midwives on the Frontlines had its premiere at Hot Docs 2026. For more information about the film, visit their website.
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