Paolo Patruno, a humanitarian photographer who spent 10 years in Africa, has been working on a photography and documentary project highlighting and bringing awareness to the maternity crisis in sub-Saharan Africa. His documentary, Birth is a Dream, shows the true side of pregnancy and birth in both optimal and suboptimal environments in Africa.

Read an interview with Patruno and watch the 13-minute documentary on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation blog, Impatient Optimists.

Photo Copyright: Paola Patruno