My Personal Birth Story
I chose to talk about my own birth since it was in a developing country
where prenatal care and childbirth practices are different from what my mother
experienced. I was born in Asmara, Eritrea, Ethiopia in 1969 (In 1995, Eritrea
became its own country). My mother had the comforts of modern medicine and I
was born in a small Army hospital. My mother was 28 when she had me and I am
her second born child. My father helped in the delivery. I was a natural birth
and was delivered after 6 hours of labor with no complications. I was born at 5:39 am, I weighed 7 lbs. 8 ½ oz., and I was 20
inches long.
I have been told many stories about my birthplace but none of them were
about how childbirth occurs in that region so I chose an article about Zambia. Zambia
is in Southern Africa, is one of the poorest countries, and has a very high
maternal mortality rate. Zambia has had access to modern medicine since the
British colonized this country in the late nineteenth century. So why is there
a high mortality rate? Through the research stated in the article, cultural
practice and beliefs are widely ignored in the contemporary hospitals. Because
of this, 53% of Zambian women have their children at home (Maimbowla, M.C.,
2003). Mbusas are women who assist the pregnant woman, are not formally trained,
and use traditional practices. It is believed that some of these practices
contribute to the mortality rate. Even
though this was a small sampling, it gives us a view
of where cultural beliefs and modern medicine collide.
Reading this research makes me realize the importance of intertwining
cultural beliefs with modern medicine in developing countries. It is no
surprise to me that they walk away from such care when their cultural beliefs
are being denied. More needs to be done with education and teaching on both
sides to reduce the high maternal mortality rate.
Maimbolwa, M. C., Yamba, B., Diwan, V. and
Ransjö-Arvidson, A.-B. (2003), Cultural childbirth practices and beliefs in
Zambia. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 43: 263–274.
doi:10.1046/j.1365-2648.2003.02709.x
You are lucky to have been born in a developing country and have survived with no complications, especially after researching the mortality rate in the region! I agree that more education should be provided to developing countries in effort to combine their cultural views and modern medicine. Times have changed, and while hundreds of years ago births were done in these traditional formats, there are much safer procedures today.
ReplyDelete