This abstract comes from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6558064, and it talks about West African childbirth traditions:
...It is customary for delivery to occur with the woman squatting on the ground surrounded by sisters and female relatives, some of whom function as midwives. Midwives get paid only if delivery is successful. A stool is also often used in childbirth. The name given to a child in the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria has to refer to the circumstances of the individual's birth. The contact with the earth (as in the squatting position) has religious overtones--it indicates the fecundity of the earth, and the mother's contact with it. The burial of the placenta and umbilical cord is thought to restore the woman's fertility and help heal her womb.I'll compare this with my own birthing experience from my second son. We didn't take home the placenta or umbilical cord or save the blood we let the hospital dispose of it. I was not outside squatting over the ground but in a hospital room in a bed. But like the Western African women I was surrounded by my sisters and my mother. And although there was a doctor present, one of my sisters and my mom (in a way) did function as midwife. They assisted me in pushing, breathing, and even helping the baby's head out. So my culture in that respect is very similar. And when my sister gave birth she was surrounded by all of us, and again she was aided in pushing and breathing (we kind of just pushed the nurses away - lol).
I didn't expect to gain any insight from this assignment but I did. I realized that altough I'm separated from Western Africa by thousands of miles, our birthing culture is quite similar. I don't know if it is because we're descents of Africans or if it's coincidence, but I found it to be rather cool!
Banae- I am so excited you are in my group for the blog assignments! I really look forward to reading your blogs.
ReplyDeleteMy mother, father, my boyfriend, and my one sister were also with me when I was delivering my son. The persepective you got from different cultures being so many miles apart, but having so many similarities is interesting.
I don't know if I should put this in here, but I will anyway. How you stated that there are similarities, makes me think of racism. People are different. That's a fact, but in all reality we are very much alike in many ways. Thank you for your wonderful insight :)
Banae,
ReplyDeleteAs always, I enjoyed reading your post. I find the Western African childbirthing customs incredibly interesting. I have heard that squatting is actually more healthy all around during the birthing process and wanted to do that when I had my son, had it not ended in a C-section. I like the importance they place on the placenta and cord and their reasoning behind it.
Very insightful!