Now and then

When I went into the hospital where my 3rd grandson was born, I straight away thought about how it was when I or my brothers and sisters were born. For one thing the surrounding then was dirty; the births were at home with untrained (but experienced) midwives. Water was from the river nearby but boiled (so it must have been quite safe). The cloth that was used to wrap us was old cloth, probably to be thrown away, except some which were of permanent use to wrap us in. But we were put in ‘straight jacket’ to make our limbs straight (so they said). And the umbilical cord was normally cut using the sharp outer-skin of a bamboo tree. This was done because that part of the bamboo is very sharp, and being just cut from the bamboo tree it must have been (assumed) sterilized. But in many cases that ‘knife’ was infected. I have seen some remaining umbilical cord left on the baby being infected.

And to keep our stomach from bloating, chewed beetle leave concoctions and chewed tobacco were spewed on our stomach and back and wrapped up with soft cloth, and the cloth would be used again and again, untill the colour of the cloth became dirty bloody red.

But at least we were breast fed, but later I saw one of my brother and my sister (by another mother) given milk. I am not sure now what that milk brand was but on reflecting I think it was plain condensed milk in hot water given via rubber teated feeding bottles.

And the just given birth mother was not allowed to eat any other food other than plain boiled rice and grilled dried salt fish (probably with grounded salt ... sometime ... and ripe grounded black pepper seeds) for approximately the confinement period. They were made to drink some home prepared concoctions as birth medicine. It must have been hard for these just given birth mothers. And they were made to stay on a sort of temporary platform with smoky logs underneath, day and night, and some time the newly born child there as well. Why dried salt fish? They say it was to make to wound heal faster. No meat was ever allowed or given, it was forbidden. It was believed that meat would make the wound flared up.

And the midwife concerned would come on and off to see the progress of the just born mother, and probably to massage the body especially the stomach part where the womb is. And to make the birth canal and the vagina heal faster, the women would on certain occasions be made to ‘smoke ‘ their bottom, they were made to stand in the smoke of some medicinal leaves collected from the jungle.

The newly given birth women may be 'tortured' for about 40 days....... confinement period they say.

The rate of death at child birth then was pretty high. I have no figure though.

Thankfully, my children (and now grandchild) were all born in modern well equipped hospitals with Doctors in attendance.

http://medicine.com.my/mydobbs/?p=312