Giving Birth in America: California (2018)

Giving Birth in America: California follows the story of pregnancy and immigration in California - a state where pregnant women are eligible for Medicaid regardless of immigration status. The film centers around Dr. Cristina Gamboa, an OB-GYN at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in the "Strawberry Capital" of the US, Watsonville, CA, as she provides high-risk prenatal care to an immigrant farmworker from Mexico who is pregnant with her third child. The majority of the clinic's patients are migrants/immigrants from Mexico who made the journey to Watsonville seeking a better life, many of whom work in the fields at the local farms. Dr. Gamboa herself comes from two generations of farmworker parents and grandparents, and studied medicine with the goal of returning to serve a community similar to the one where she was raised. Through a personal account, the film illustrates some of the challenges immigrant women experience before, during, and after pregnancy and highlights the importance of access to quality health services from providers with a deep understanding of the community they serve.