An inspiring profile, Birth of a Surgeon travels to Mozambique where, for the first time, midwives are being trained in advanced life-saving surgery. Suffering from an acute shortage of doctors, Mozambique launched a bold grassroots initiative that has cut the maternal death rate in half. Starting in the capital city of Maputo, we follow the journey of student Emilia Cumbane through intensive medical classes and night shifts in the delivery ward as she learns to heal the life-threatening complications pregnant women encounter - from eclampsia to acute bleeding and ruptured wombs. Cumbane then parts from her husband and 6-year-old son to finish her training in a small rural clinic nearly 100 miles from the city. Working in a makeshift delivery room so crowded that women in labor sometimes share beds, Cumbane becomes one of the first midwives in the world granted the right to perform surgery. Even before her graduation, Cumbane performs her first life-saving Caesarian section by herself - illustrating how one woman can make a difference on the frontlines of public health in Africa. "It's a miracle to be a midwife!" says Cumbane, beaming, as the new mother holds her healthy baby in her arms. With more than half a million women dying each year during pregnancy or childbirth, the program is being hailed as a model solution offering new hope to developing countries worldwide.

Tuesday, 7/15/08 from 10-11 p.m. ET