Childbirth––In My Life and Around the World

I have been lucky enough to witness six babies being born, and experienced the birth my own two children. Each birth was unique and as memorable. As a first time expecting mother, I was terrified by the thought of labor, the pain, and specially the unfolding drama. We had our son after eleven hours of labor, and I ended up requesting epidural because I thought to myself, I wanted to enjoy the experience. I did not want to remember the pain. However, I was so knocked out, and I did not even remember feeling my body. As for my daughter, I wanted a different experience.  We had her after three hours of labor without epidural just the support of my family and a wonderful midwife who guided me throughout my pregnancy. With my daughter, everything was a natural, and she was alert, responsive and starting nursing right away. She had a beautiful complexion and just looked amazingly. That is one of the reasons I thought natural birth was really the way to go because I was there present in body mind and spirit ready, and most importantly conscious. We are delighted because it was a wonderful experience. I feel there is nothing like a safe natural birth. We just get so scared. I thought I could not have a child without the drugs (I admit. I am a chicken), but I did it and millions of women around the world still do it. So if you are going down the road of pregnancy and child birth remember that you can survive it.

I looked at childbirth in Liberia, a country in West Africa.  I found out that childbirth is not the safest activity in that country as it has among the highest maternal mortality, morbidity in the world. “The number of women dying in childbirth in Liberia has nearly doubled since the 1980s” (IRIN Global, 2011) In addition, Liberia’s infant mortality rate is reported as 71 per 1,000live births. (Lori, 2009). Many women over 68% of women give birth at home and are generally assisted by “untrained” midwives. I also found out that most of the complications that happen in the rural part of the country end up in fatalities. I did not find evidence of paid maternal leave as many women are homemakers, but found out the family rally around the new parents and help raise the children.  This was quite different from my experience giving birth and saddened me. However, I found out that it is not just poverty that is the cause but some of the cultural practices, illiteracy, poverty, victimizations and rural, gender based violence and trauma. (Lori, 2009). I learned from this experience that we really need to advocate for safe child birth, educate woman and their support systems in the “developing world” about healthy pregnancies. I learned how a lack of prenatal care affects the developing fetus and the health of the mother. Childbirth is such a wonderful experience, and we have to make it safe for both the woman and the child.

For more information on Childbirth in Liberia, please visit the following sites:

IRIN Global. (2011). IRIN humanitarian news and analysis. Retrieved September 08, 2011, from http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?Reportid=84036

Lori, J. R. (2009). CULTURAL CHILDBIRTH PRACTICES, BELIEFS AND TRADITIONS IN LIBERIA. The University of Arizona.