102 Pregnancy and Childbir th
We decided to walk the
7 miles to the health center to
talk to the midwife. We told
her what we had learned and
asked her to help us find ways to
solve this problem. The midwife
was very happy to help us. She
talked to the head of our village
and asked for a meeting with the
elders. During the meeting, the
midwife talked to the elders about
the health risks of a long labor.
She also told them what we had
learned about women dying while giving birth in our village. The elders all agreed
that this was a very serious problem for the whole village. They asked the midwife
how this problem could be solved. The midwife told the elders that this was not
just a problem in our village but in many villages in Nigeria. She suggested that the
village pick 12 men and 12 women to go to a five-day training on reproductive health
and family planning. These villagers would become reproductive health workers, and
would work to teach and motivate
the rest of the village.
After the training, the men who
had gone realized that they had to
be actively involved in solving this
serious problem. They decided to
work hard to teach the other men
in the village about the risks of
labor and how to help women in
labor. They also decided to have a
transportation committee to help
women get to the health center
when they needed it.
We all worked very hard to solve this health problem in our village. In the
beginning, many people said that women often die giving birth and there was
nothing we could do about it. But we did not get discouraged. By working
together with the women, the midwife, the elders, and the men of the community,
we came up with a solution that works in our village. And the answer to our
problem wasn’t more money or a new technology. The answer was in our time
and effort. All of us from our village encourage you to work together to improve
the life and health of your community.
To learn more about thinking about and solving health
problems, read the chapter on “Solving Health Problems.”
Where Women Have No Doctor 2012