This short film communicates women's joy in birth and motherhood, as well as their sorrow over the loss of babies, the deaths of sisters, daughters, friends, aunts and cousins. Its vibrant contemporary soundtrack reflects both women's courage and pain.

In 2003, award winning journalist Brigid McConville and her colleague Dr. Gwyneth Lewis, advisor to WHO, gathered the testimony of mothers and midwives in villages and slums across Africa and South East Asia. The title comes from all those who spoke of a sister - or aunt, or cousin, or friend - who had died as a result of pregnancy.

Amina tells how her 15 year old married sister laboured for five days before they put her on a camel. It was another three days before she got to a health centre - too late. "I always remember my sister," she says, "I really liked that sister, and she liked me."

Grace, sitting outside her house in an African village, says "I am happy to be alive!" The night she went into labour her uterus ruptured but the chief would not risk his bullock cart to take her across the bush in the dark. It was dawn before she made it to a hospital. Her baby died.

At one point the film shows the floor of a hut strewn with goat droppings. Far from a road, without running water, this is where the local traditional birth attendant delivers the women of her village. More than half of the world's mothers still give birth in places like this, without skilled care.

My Sister My Self, commissioned by the British Council , was first screened at the Commonwealth Health Ministers' meeting in Geneva, on May 16th 2004.

Almost all of those who die are poor and powerless. This film gives them a voice - and shows how lives can be saved.