I am a mother of five children and
have had easy labor during all of my births. My first son was born 40 years
ago. At that time women went through a lot of prep for their delivery. When I got to the hospital, I was cleaned,
shaved and given an enema. Why any woman
in labor should have to undergo an enema is still too hard to comprehend. When it was time for my second child to be born,
I wanted to arrive at the hospital the very last minute, just to avoid all of
the prep especially the stupid enema.
My husband worked
in the oil field and always got home around 8 p.m. at night. I was not feeling
well and I called my mom to come down. By than it was 9:30. She and I like to
drink coffee and visit, so I put the coffee on, just stalling. I went in and
took a shower while the coffee was brewing. By then it was close to 10:30 p.m.
We lived about 30 miles from the hospital, so we got on the interstate to get
there. My husband always ran on empty and this day was no different. As we got
close to the exit, we ran out of gas. We coasted down the off ramp into the gas
station. By than it was 11:15 p.m. and my pains were constant and bad. Another
10 minutes we were at the hospital and I could not walk. My husband got a wheel
chair and took me up to delivery. I was placed in the delivery room and I remember
the nurse examining me. Just than the doctor came in and the nurse told him he
better get his catchers mitt. He got on
gloves, but was still in his street clothes. My daughter was born at 11:52 p.m.
I was very lucky to make it to the hospital in time.
My daughter
was born jaundice and had to stay in the hospital for about 5 days. I was very grateful
for my child being born in the hospital not along the side of the road. She was
able to get the care she needed immediately. As for her development, she
developed as a normal child. She had no childhood problems. When she turned 32
she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis after she had an episode losing her
vision in her eyes. The causes for multiple sclerosis is not clear, it is
thought to be either the destruction of the autoimmune system or failure of the myelin producing cells. The proposed
causes for this include genetics
and environmental factors such as infections. We cannot
think of anytime she was sick or know of any environmental factor that may have harmed her but people
never know what is out there.
I chose to look at birthing in
Guatemala. My family has a fruit farm and we have had men come and work for us
from Guatemala the last 50 years. They are a part of our extended family. The oldest gentleman would always tease me
about going to the hospital and having my babies there because the way his wife and
daughters delivered their babies was so different. He told me that they do not go to hospitals or
have doctors. They have a Comadrona.
A Comadrona is a traditional birth
attendant having little formal education or training. They usually have
very few supplies, difficulty transporting patients during an emergency, and work
in unclean conditions (Walsh, 2013). Guatemala has one of the highest maternal
mortality rates in Latin America, with national figures reported to be between
156 and 270 deaths per 100,000 live births. 72% of births occur at home and are attended by a Comadrona and for Mayan communities
more than 90 % occur at home (Hurtado et
al. 2001: 216).
The aspects about the Guatemalan
births that intrigued me were the way their culture, traditions and rituals play
into the birthing process. Women of Mayan descent may remain at home
throughout their entire nine months because they fear any influential exposure
to illness, evil spirits or even the ill will of others. The Guatemalan
women believe speedy delivery can be induced by drinking a liquid created by
boiling a purple onion in beer. As a
part of la cuarantena where family members and close friends take over
household duties while the mother goes through 40 days of healing and
mother-infant bonding.
As I
compare the birthing process in America versus Guatemala, women’s safety is at
greater risk in Guatemala. The unclean conditions, complications during birth put
women’s lives at risk. In America some women do home births. Personally,
that would not be the way I would want to have my child.. I want my child be born
in an environment where I know they would be off to a great start in life. If I
was Guatemalan, home births with a Comadrona, would be my way of life and all I
would know. As we learned in our reading this week, culture plays a big part in
people’s lives.
Reference
Hurtado, Elena and Eugenia Sáenz de Tedjada. 2001 Relations between Government Health
Workers and Traditional Midwives in Guatemala. In Mesoamerican Healers. Brad R.
Huber and Alan R. Sandstrom, eds. Pp. 211-242 Austin, TX: University of Texas
Press.
Walsh, L. (2013, November ). Retrieved from Belifs and
Rituals in Traditional Birth Attend Practice in Guatemala http://wunrn.com/news/2006/07_03_06/070906_guatemala_beliefs.pdf
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