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Giving Birth in Rural Guatemala

10:40 H | Topics: Children - Guatemala - Health - Women

Childbirth isn't an easy process for any woman, but an article I came across this morning highlights the problems women, mostly Indigenous women, face in rural Guatemala. Part of the problem is poverty, made worse by machista attitudes towards pregnancy and childbirth

....in Guatemala, where 1 in every 71 women who becomes pregnant during her lifetime dies from causes associated with pregnancy, delivery and the postpartum period. In the Latin America-Caribbean region that's second only to Haiti, where the risk is 1 in 44. Often women in difficult labor are carried down in a hammock by menfrom the 16-family community, a journey that takes about two hours. Once they reach the nearest passable road, they could try to flag down a ride. But more often they would still have to walk the rest of the way as well, taking at least another four hours.

A recent trip by the The U.N. Population Fund identified four demoras, literally delays, that contribute to the maternal health crisis.

First, the woman and her caregivers don't always recognize that there's a problem in time to act.

Second, once a problem is recognized, the woman often seeks the
permission of her husband, mother-in-law or other family member to go to the doctor or hospital. If she doesn't get it, she doesn't go.

Third--and widely agreed to be the most difficult to change--are the
logistics of lining up proper transport. Small communities often only
have one vehicle.

The fourth demora is making sure that women receive proper attention
once they reach the hospital. If a clinic does not deliver top-notch
care, a woman's health may be endangered even if she makes it to the
hospital.

Some of the solutions being offered up seem logical, like using local midwives, training them to recognize signs of problems, and providing them with clean birthing kits. But instead of attempting to do some sort of mass education campaign so that women take charge of their own health decisions, community men are being trained to step in to urge women to seek help and are even armed with the power to give permission for the women to seek help.

I understand the need to deal with the immediate, provide sanitary conditions, create more local birthing centers, set up transport systems, etc. but once those problems are adequately dealt with, I still fear women waiting to get the go ahead from their male partners to take care of themselves.

Via / Women's e News

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