The gift of life has been celebrated for centuries and
with many customs. I recall from my position as a Medical Registrar in
Obstetrics and Gynecology in Africa 20 years ago that women of different
cultures and ethnicity had their own way to deliver babies. In our hospital
in Ndola, Zambia, we had 35 deliveries a night. Some of the mothers were
Whites, some were East Indians, and most were Africans.
The White mothers were quite reserved with their screams
and pain, and they took a long time to deliver. The East Indian women were
very verbal and required the presence of many members of their family around
them in the delivery ward. Most of the African women delivered quickly
and easily, sometimes insisting on delivering in a squatting position.
While I had had some experience in European OB-GYN, the number of deliveries
in Ndola gave me a unique experience. I witnessed and shared the pain and
happiness of the new mothers, and was also confronted by unusual events.
I heard stories of mothers biting their own umbilical
cords to separate from their newborn when they delivered in the bush and
were far from medical assistance. In the Ndola hospital, I witnessed some
unusual uses of the placenta. One of our colleagues from the dermatology
unit used to collect the fresh placenta, which he would then apply to chronic
leg ulcers of his elderly patients. The technique gave excellent results
and was very inexpensive. He was never sued, as there was no acknowledgement
on his part of the risk of cross-infection, but additionally, there was
no hospital board and very few lawyers in Ndola.
