Cesarean deliveries are frequent in Pakistan

Oct 30, 2006

In every village so far there have been several women who would be excellent at sharing the information, so we know we have to train village people to share the information through oral tradition.

Illiteracy is not an issue with village people. They may not know how to read and write however they have incredible memories and can often repeat what I say word for word. They have long range memory as well and the ability to remember a great deal of information. Their memory is not just ‘rote’ learning. Once they understand something then they remember it. The skills then become part of their thinking and knowing.

This has always been apparent to me in the years where I’ve spent time over the years. This means getting these skills out to village people will probably be much easier than getting the skills to urban, educated women unless Common Knowledge Trust can produce a simple, written Pink Kit resource Ministry of Health can distribute to pregnant women from the clinics.

Also consider this. Urban and educated women in Pakistan like many countries rely on what the doctors says. Every woman has had a c/s for a breech birth. Even in countries like Pakistan with a less broadly available and less sophisicated health system the concept of once a c/s always a c/s is applied. In fact, I was told many women arrive at an appointment toward the end of pregnancy and the doctor says 'something is wrong, you have to have a cesarean' without telling women what the problem is. Women don't question either.

Being a doctor is very high status. Everyone wanted to call me Madam or Doctor. Caste and class are still very real elements in Pakistan society. Women of high class value the doctor's opinion and never question. Women of low class do not feel they have any legitimacy to question.

However the village women who live very far from the hospital have no transport. They will birth in the village. They always try to make birth safe for the mothers and babies.

They see The Pink Kit skills as adding a huge dimension of safety and this excites them.

Visit:

http://www.commonknowledgetrust.com
http://www.birthingbetter.com
http://www.thepinkkit.com