Review: Documentary a ‘touching’ exploration of maternity care across the Pacific

Sachiko Fukumoto is an actress, free diver and activist for women’s birthing rights. Photo / Supplied

Documentary Pacific Mother is an illuminating, touching and beautifully photographed exploration of maternity care and birthing choices across the Pacific.

The work had its conception as the short film Water Baby in 2019, but absolutely warrants expansion to a feature. It’s fronted by Sachiko Fukumoto, a Japanese-born actress, free diver and activist in the realm of women’s birthing rights who is married to Kiwi world champion free diver William Trubridge.

Fukumoto initially pursues the possibility of delivering their first child by water birth in her home country. But Japan – which she discovers once championed ways of natural delivery that did not rely on medical intervention – has since become much more cautious.

Advised to give birth here in Aotearoa, she talks to mothers-to-be in Tahiti, the Cook Islands and Hawaii to see how cultural practices and the availability of modern medicine affect women’s choices across the Pacific.

Even for viewers without direct experience of motherhood (and, understandably, there will be some mums and non-mums for whom this unreservedly happy portrait of pregnancy and birth could be painful), Pacific Mother is fascinating as a cultural investigation, and visually beguiling with its stunning underwater scenes, and shots of cute wee offspring.

Accompanied by the lulling strum of Hawaiian ukulele, it’s a warmly affecting exploration of love, empowerment and connection with our natural world.

Pacific Mother is directed by Katherine McRae is in cinemas now.