Jogi Moor ... continued

Oct 25, 2006

We arrived in the morning about 11:00am. Twenty women of all ages attended. At first they thought that we were there to treat them. This is a natural assumption since Zeba is a doctor and had previously run a free clinic in this village. It took a while for the women to realize something else would happen.

Whenever I start a Pink Kit presentation, I first ask about childbirth preparation in their own culture or within their religious beliefs. As Hindu tribal women, they explained that there is no preparation for birth really. When the woman started her pains, many women gathered with her. She was encouraged to always walk around, holding her breath and pushing throughout labour.

When the baby started to come, one woman would apply strong pressure on the uterus while another woman used warm oil to massage the outside of the vagina. The women held onto several ropes tied to the roof beams and that’s how they delivered. If there were piles (hemorrhoids) then the woman catching the baby applied pressure against the rectum with her heel, compressing the anus. Of course this had to be done with the woman's bottom close to the ground.

What they talked about were the huge number of birth problems. Women did die in childbirth both from blood loss and from infection. It was common to have one or more stillborn babies in each family. One woman who attended the presentation had given birth to 7 children… all had died before the age of 7. It was common for newborn babies to die within the first few days, weeks or months and again around 3 years and up to 7. If a child lived through the first 7 years, they had a good chance of growing up.

Women married very young in this village to young men and frequently had their first child at 15 or 16.

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