Childbirth in my life and around the world!

 I have no first hand personal  experience of birthing. My sisters and sister-in-laws birthed children, but I was mostly for support, or babysitting. Although, we have had conversations of their discomforts during pregnancy, the relief of having healthy babies, I never asked any more than what they shared.

From this weeks reading I learn that America births are done in a controlled atmosphere. So I selected  Nigeria to see how their births are done in Africa.  I found an article in the Global Voices written in 2015 written about a village called Bomadi in the Nigerian Delta State.  The article states:" Despite the dangers, many women shun trained medical help during birth". According to Eske(2015) they prefer a "traditional birth attendant", one reason is the cost, and a matter of trust.  The birth attendant Didkandkide Joseph sees pregnant women in his very small hut.  His hut is so small on one pregnant woman at a time will fit, and it has no modern amenities. Not even an air condition.  Mr. Joseph says:"He never received formal training from anyone"except God". He makes the pregnant women stand in line out side his hut, many who are in labor. When he has complications he just speak to the complication and it obeys his voice. There are a lot of traditional birth attendants that use incantations, herbs, even the river.  The Nigerians who use these birth attendants are in rural areas, but it is not limited to urban areas.  Their culture is using birth attendants, and the government has not made much effort to change this. The facilities the government have are clinics without much medicine or equipment, and they close up in the evening.  There are no night births done in them.
The difference in America and Nigeria is to great a disparity to compare.  Everyone I know used a hospital of their choosing. And would not be able to imagine not having a choice.  We were talking about epidurals at work on Friday in the birthing process, the women in Nigeria would probably not use it, if they have ever heard of it.  Nevertheless, they are still producing children in these huts using birth attendants.  Not always successfully.  If an American was ever pregnant in Nigeria"s rural area she would think she had step back in time.

                                    Reference
Eske,C. (19 February, 2015). Traditional birthing still flourish in Nigeria.Global Voices Africa. Retrieved from https://iwpr.net/global-voices/traditional-birthing-practices-still-flourish