Sometimes, local customs are so entrenched, people follow them even when the outcome could be tragic.
That was almost the case for a teenaged girl in Vietnam, but thanks to help from a woman trained in a birth attendant program, the girl is now the mother of a healthy baby girl.
Every year, about half a million women throughout the world die as a result of pregnancy, largely because there isn’t enough proper care before, during, and after delivery.
But unquestioning faith in non-medical traditional practices also plays a role.
In Vietnam, many women avoid outside help through pregnancy, shrouding the process in privacy. That was how 17-year-old Sun May was approaching her first delivery. But she did agree to have a prenatal exam at a clinic through a birth attendant program.
It was Sun May’s first visit to a clinic or hospital; although she found the experience unusual and uncomfortable, it seemed to break down barriers with her family. When delivery time arrived, Sun May’s mother broke with local custom and came to the clinic asking for help from the program.
Two female birth attendants answered the call and helped Sun May through her delivery.
It was a life-saving step, because the umbilical cord was tied around the neck of new-born Phong Lan and required swift work from one of the attendants to avoid suffocation.
As a result, Sun May agreed to be the subject of a documentary film to show others in her ethnic group the value of trained midwives. Her experience also changed the attitudes of people in Sun May’s community – people who had been very skeptical before.
Your support for Samaritan’s Purse-financed programs like this can help women in developing countries face pregnancy with less isolation and less reason to fear for their lives and the lives of their babies.
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