RIGHT FROM the beginning, we know how “Olivia’s Story” ends. A mother of nine from Barangay Tonsuya in Malabon, she died delivering her 10th child, under the care of a hilot or traditional birth attendant (TBA) in their community.
Her mother revealed that Olivia sought a hilot’s services mainly to save money, since a trip to the hospital, even a government hospital, would still have entailed costs beyond their family’s capacity. Ofelia, the TBA, said she learned the trade “just from watching” other hilots in her family assist mothers at birth. Among Ofelia’s arsenal of skills: plucking hair from the mother’s head and placing it on the mother’s belly “to ease the delivery.”
By Rina Jimenez-David
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 06:07:00 09/22/2010
Many of the women in Baseco continue to use The Hilot……she is not a professional………the results CAN be tragic
BBB can allow women the freedom to have a birth with proper Birth Attendants, their chance of survival increases dramatically!
You can see in the following graph that the poorest women do not use Birth Attendants
See my post Truth and Reality for some more facts on Birth in Manila
Source: Macro International Inc, 2011. MEASURE DHS STATcompiler.
http://www.measuredhs.com, June 14 2011.
Olivia’s story is an avertable one!
BIRTHING BETTER BABIES 