BBC NEWS: The midwives braving armed gangs in Colombia →

In the stifling heat of Buenaventura, Feliciana Hurtado walks around with a big smile on her face in the neighbourhood where she has delivered many babies over the last 30 years.

The 68-year-old greets the mothers whom she has helped, and their children.

Ms Hurtado lives in a relatively safe area of the mainly Afro-Colombian port city on Colombia's impoverished and conflict-ridden western coast, but her work as a midwife often takes her to dangerous and troubled neighbourhoods.

Ms Hurtado visits a two-month-old baby she delivered. Photo: Steven Grattan