22-22
WOMEN’S HEALTH—
AND STRENGTHS
Traditionally, childbirth and women’s health problems have been attended to
mostly by women. But in many parts of the world, modern medical knowledge is
now kept mainly in the hands of men. Even doctors who specialize in women’s
needs are mostly men!
This is unfortunate, because women have many health problems that men never
experience. No man has been pregnant, had a vaginal discharge, or suffered from a
painful abscess during breast feeding.
Of course there are exceptions, but in general, male health workers are not
as sensitive to women’s problems. “A man just doesn’t seem to listen,” many
women say.
For this reason, more and more women have begun to feel that self-care is a
wise idea. Health workers, whether men or women, can help groups of women
get together, learn about each other’s needs, and begin to care for and help one
another. The Hesperian book Where Women Have No Doctor has many good
suggestions regarding women’s self-care.
When health workers meet with groups of women to discuss health problems, it
helps if they ask the women what they want to learn about. Women in different
areas will have different concerns. Here is a list of topics that a village women’s
group in Latin America wanted to discuss and learn more about:
• ‘bad blood’ (sexually transmitted infections)
and infertility
• ‘burning urine’ and other urinary and vaginal
problems
• a girl’s first bleeding and related problems
• failure to bleed every month, and other
menstrual problems
• miscarriage and abortion
• pain when having sex
• rape, abuses by men, and self-protection
• how to avoid unwanted pregnancy
• diet during pregnancy and following childbirth
• causes of ‘eclipsed’ babies (birth defects)
• specific problems and ‘modern practices’
related to childbirth
• care of newborn babies and young children
• breast pain and abscess when breast feeding
• cancer, how to avoid it and how to recognize it
• ‘change of life’ (menopause)
Where mothers’ clubs or traditional women’s groups already exist, encourage
health workers to look for ways to work with them, and ask for their help.
Some women’s groups are active in the struggle for social change. We know
of villages in 3 Latin American countries where women have organized to prevent
abuses by local authorities. Sometimes this happened in situations where the men
were too frightened to speak out or take action. (In many countries, officials are less
likely to use violence against women.) In Honduras, for example, a group of
teen-age boys was jailed recently for helping to take over farmland that the
government had promised to poor families and then refused to give them. The
boys’ fathers were afraid to act, so a local women’s group organized over 4000
women, stormed the jail, and managed to release them—with no violence or injury!
When women awaken to their power of collective action, they can do a lot! (See
the women’s theater presentation on page 27-19.)