In developed countries, almost all children are born in sterilized hospital rooms with a team of doctors and nurses providing help. However, in most developing countries, this is a luxury. The few hospitals are at least fifty miles away and there is no way of getting there when labor pain starts. So most mothers end up delivering their children in unsterilized grass thatched huts. The "mid wives" are older and experienced mothers who guide the new mother through the delivery process. If there are any complications during delivery, it is almost a sure thing that either the baby or the mother (or both) will be lost. After delivery, the umbilical chord is cut using unsterilized equipment. This exposes both the baby and the mother to a lot of infections.
The babies are not immunized for the host of diseases surrounding them. This system lays a very poor and weak foundation for the future health of the child. The child is exposed to cow dung (used to polish the floor), smoke from the fire (used to warm the house and cook food), dirty water and many other conditions that poss health challenges.
In some African countries, the newly born baby is tossed in the air a few times to "make him/her get used to the weather elements." By doing this, most children end up developing "shacken baby syndrome."
Some babies are circumcised using unsterilized equipment, increasing the danger of infection. I believe that any efforts to improve the health of nations must first address these situations. This is one of the reasons why the infant mortality rates are so high in developing countries.
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2 comments:
Nice post Onias! What you described is a reality that we see daily in the Philippines. Even though slowly things are changing, still because of poverty we wee the story repeat itself time after time.
One of our graduates, who finished her MPH three years ago is now leading a US$ 27 million in Indonesia for maternal and child health. They have been working with the governemnt in a project involving the community traditional "midwifes" with the trained health care midwifes, and they are having incredible results. Instead of encouraging the people not to seek help from them, they are giving them incentives (a share of the consultation) to the traditional midwife if they bring the mother to the local clinick for the check up... and they like it! In those visits, they take the opportunity to train them, and it buids up. Very interesting. As soon as they have reports I will share them with you.
Milton
It makes me wonder about the millions of babies born before the age of "medicine and health care", all the different practices that each culture passes down about birth and what to do when the baby arrives. I also think, they have done it for thousands of years, why can't we do it with out millions of dollars of technology and physicans direction these days? I do agree that ignorance kills many babies and we can now hlep educate peoples of all cultures without taking away their individualism. Very interesting!
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