Births in Africa

Did you ever wonder how births happen around the world? Well, I never did. I never really thought about it until this course Early Childhood Development. I've decided to look into the birth traditions and rituals of Africa.

It is normal for delivery to happen with a woman squatting on the ground . In some cases the mother is supported by sisters, relatives and neighbors for the first time but, is expected to do it alone after. Midwives are an essential part in this delivery process, they are considered the backbone for all deliveries that  takes place in the low socioeconomic villages of Africa. Families in Africa live in small groups and settle in tents or homes made out of local materials.

Maternal death rate is extremely high in Africa. According to www.womendeliver.org in Sudan 509 women die for every 100,000 live births. Most midwives do not have the proper training to identify complications during the delivery process. Women are literally in labor for days before, the man decides to seek help. Many families are miles away from the local hospitals with no means of transportation. The transportation women have are cows in their village. When these women reach professional help, they pass out from exhaustion, and the babies are dead. Many of the women Dr. Waaldijk operates on are extremely young, have not yet developed fully in order to safely deliver a baby and have suffered from obstetric fistulas. Obstetric fistulas is when the baby is stuck in the birth canal, resulting in the stop of blood circulation, holes in their bowels and urethra's. This is prevented by having c-sections. Many women in Africa are not knowledgeable about the fistula repair centers and they suffer for years in their hut alone, embarrassed and neglected by their husbands, families and neighbors.

After a successful birth their are different placenta traditions. Some women bite the cord and bury the placenta after giving birth, some treat the placenta as a dead twin of the live child and give it full burying rights, some believe that when the cord falls off it signifies that the baby belongs to the mother and the community, some believe that the place where the placenta is buried is a place where they can later connect with ancestors and some bury it to symbolize ongoing life.