The film follows Mary Francis Hill Coley (1900–66) an African American midwife from Albany, Georgia who helped deliver over 3,000 babies in the middle part of the 20th century.
Due to its success the Georgia Department of Public Health determined he was qualified to direct a film on midwives and was initially granted $20,000.
Stoney also gained the support of progressive black pastor, Bishop Noah, who preached to the Church of the Kingdom of God, and where Mary Coley attended, not to be afraid of white people.
Coley and the congregation therefore welcomed both blacks and whites, including the all-white film crew, and weren't overly suspicious due to Bishop Noah's direction.
While some scenes were scripted, the film is notable for featuring a 15-minute real-time sequence of a live birth, a technique pioneered by filmmakers Pare Lorentz and Robert Flaherty.
The score, written by Louis Applebaum and performed by the Musical Art Chorus in Washington, D.C., gives the film a sense of joy during childbirth.
However, the Georgia Department of Public Health provided an accompanying pamphlet with the film stating that the medical profession was not endorsing midwives, seeing them as a "temporary and unfortunate necessity.