88. OP #10 Monterrico's Comadrones

Taking the opposite approach of Malawi, Guatemala encourages lay midwives--comadrones--offering support such as periodic training sessions (Malawi, to remind you, basically outlawed lay midwives, claiming that they were "unteachable").







We invited Monterrico midwives to meet with L., the midwife who was a member of our team; four came.  L. asked them why they became midwives.  The strongest reply came from a midwife of some 15 years who related her story of being ignored by the medical establishment when she delivered in hospital.

Several years ago I asked a group of medical students in Hue, Viet Nam why they decided to study medicine.  Several answered in a similar manner:  they had witness family members who had not been well treated by physicians.  But a greater number answered that they were meeting family expectations.    For several years I've worked with a second-generation Chinese-American surgeon, who quite frankly admits that he became a doctor just because that's what his father wanted. So he did it.  Fifty years later, he is an accomplished surgeon and continues to operate part time--he really enjoys it.