The nameless and brave woman who delivered her own children.
We travelled about an hour outside of Minas to Minas Satu, where women met us at the polindes for the interviews. So far, I’ve talked about puskesmas and pustu but polindes is basically just a village health post, where the ANC clinics and Mother’s Groups take place. Of the polindes that we visited, this one was by far the least equipped. It was a small two room building, with chicken wire for a window and just a wooden table for an exam table. I’m not sure what type of ANC is done here since there was nothing else in the building. When we arrived, there were already tons of women waiting outside. The midwives put together an impromptu health session so the mother’s felt occupied before we could get to them.
Interviewing in the polindes, which you would never expect to be any type of health center from the picture
Things went more or less the same way as the previous day, but we met an incredibly brave and remarkable woman. The primary language spoken is Bahasa Indonesia, and while most ethnic groups speak Indonesian, this women was not educated and from an ethnic minority. Because of this, another mother that we interviewed translated for her. If we hadn’t been so pressed for time, I would have loved to have talked to her more. She is 41 and has had 11 births, 10 of those children have survived. She had recently delivered her 11th. What’s remarkable about her is that she delivered all of her children at home, by herself. When asked why, she said that she was too embarrassed to deliver in front of anyone else. She was a smart woman, despite never attending school: she had a plan, were there to be any complications with her delivery. She must have taken good care of her children in order for so many of them to survive, in otherwise dismal circumstances – she was poor with so many mouths to feed. I wanted to ask her more about her life and I would have loved to have spent some time with her, but our schedule didn’t allow for it. Even though, in terms of our research, this woman will be considered an outlier, her story is really amazing. I can’t imagine giving birth alone, let alone delivering my own placenta and cutting my own umbilical cord….11 times. Perhaps what I’m even more amazed about is the fact that she and 10 of her children are still alive. The odds of maternal mortality are greatly against her.
Globally, it's rare to see father's with their children. Children are often attached to their mothers, in some form or another. I've seen a lot of father's holding their children here, and not just for the obligatory 20 minutes during the day. I try to capture this as much as possible.
Baby wrapped up in his mother's batik
As a side note, I’m not used to “parachuting” into these sites, visiting and interviewing for a few hours and leaving. It’s a real challenge for me. I’m learning about each woman for 15 to 20 minutes and then saying goodbye. What I really want to do is sit around and chat and learn about their day to day and see where they live and meet their families. There are a ton of barriers to me doing this, least of which is that I don’t speak Bahasa Indonesian. It’s hard to realize I’m not a PCV anymore, and I’m worried that I might never again have the chance to interact with people like when I lived in Mali. Then I remember that I’ll live in Mali again, and that, at the very least, my family will sit around and chat with me until we’re both bored. I get this feeling at least once a day, when I meet a really awesome woman – or more than one! – and can’t do anything to get to know her better.
This young mother waited most of the morning to interview with us, and benefited from health classes from the midwives and village health workers
This little guy was adorable, sitting on the floor while we interviewed his mother. He has a severe handicap of his legs, and as a child it's noticeable but doesn't keep him from running around. Unfortunately, there was another little boy to his left that kept kicking him.
Young girl waiting patiently for her mother's interview to end