Activity Post 3

Reading the article about authoritative knowledge really challenges our knowledge and trust of biomedical techniques. Western societies trust biomedicine so much due to the scientific evidence and research that coincides with experience and being very educated, so it’s easy to put your life and health into one’s hands who appears so qualified. Authoritative knowledge can harm someone’s life and I am sure that it has several times before, as healthcare providers put their knowledge and beliefs over the patient who is experiencing pain and knows obviously what is going on in their bodies. A woman should be able to be as hands on as possible with her birth, instead of putting the whole process into a physician’s hands. (Jordan, 1992). I will examine childbirth procedures, childbirth rituals and who holds the authoritative knowledge in my selected country of Ethiopia.

            Childbirth in Ethiopia is very similar to the childbirth process that was shown in the film of the Hmong women who typically delivered their babies at home due to the location of the health center. Adet Health Center is the main health center for expectant mothers in the rural area of Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, and it takes at least an hour and a half to make it there, which is a considerably long time to get somewhere in a medical emergency. This health center provides antenatal care and delivery services, but the majority of women have at-home births due to the expense and the location of the health center (Stratten, 2010). Only 7% of women in Ethiopia are accompanied by a midwife, which is an extremely horrifying statistic in the eyes of a young Western woman who was taught that birth is a high-risk medical event. In many areas in Ethiopia, birth lasts for 12 days, up to the circumcision of the baby at day 12. If the mother is in labor for longer than a day, shots are fired to induce birth by shock. The delivery of the placenta is done by using the cut end of the umbilical cord to tie on the mother’s leg to prevent the placenta from going back into the uterus and then the midwife massages the mother’s abdomen to push any remains out (Selassie, 1986). 

            Childbirth rituals vary from each ethnic group, but they all seem to share commonalities of preparing the mother for the life-long journey of motherhood. In Ethiopia, to prepare for birth, the expectant mother and friends celebrate by dancing and eating delectable foods eagerly waiting for the woman to go into labor. While in labor, the mother’s friends and families prepare a coffee ceremony, burn incense, and make genfo, which is a porridge. If the mother doesn’t eat the genfo as soon as she delivers the baby, evil will enter her body. Many women chose not to deliver at a health care center, fearing that they would miss the ceremony, which is very similar to the situation that one of the Hmong women had faced when she delivered her baby at the health center, instead of at home.

            In Ethiopia, many women give birth on their own, which says that they hold the authoritative knowledge in terms of childbirth. As for the women who can afford midwives, the authoritative knowledge is still with the mother as the midwife supports the mother and eases her of birthing pains.

  • https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12157987
  • https://www.msh.org/news-events/stories/ethiopian-mother-mentors-bringing-birth-ceremonies-to-health-centers-to-promote
  • https://www.intrahealth.org/vital/realities-childbirth-ethiopia-visit-adet-health-center-amhara
  • Authoritative Knowledge. Jordan 1992

One thought on “Activity Post 3

  1. Giving birth on your own or with the help of only family members used to be extremely common. My Great-Grandma gave birth to at least two of her kids at home with only her mother (my great-great-grandma), and this was during the late fourties early fifties. Birth is a natural part of life and giving birth, while shrouded in cultural symbols and meaning, is at heart a completely normal biological function. Through the process of medicalization, we often forget that.

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