A little feminism goes a long way in parts of rural India where the number of women who die in labour has been cut by 90 percent.
The message is written on a poster, hung between trees that offer shade but little relief from the blazing sun. It spells out what has been achieved in this rural Indian village: “We no longer die in childbirth.”
For the women of Purabgaon, in the Amethi district of Uttar Pradesh, expectations had always been clear. Get married young, then have back-to-back pregnancies. Those babies would be delivered in unsanitary conditions at home by a dai, a village midwife with no training and many superstitions.
“Even if a woman was taken to hospital for the birth, half an hour later she would be bundled home to do the chores, feed the cattle and cook,” said Gulab Yadav, a project manager in Amethi for Save a Mother.
The maternal mortality rate (MMR) in Amethi has been one of the highest in the world – 451 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to a 2008 government survey. Anaemia is one key problem: around 55% of Indian women are anaemic, and rural women’s diets are often poor.
Save a Mother aims to educate rural women about pregnancy, nutrition, immunisation, delivery and care of the child. “We told them to delay having the first baby and leave a three-year gap between pregnancies to keep mother and child safe and healthy. And they understand that delivery in hospital is safest because complications such as heavy bleeding can be treated,” said Gita Gupta, a Save a Mother team leader.
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