Assistant Anthropology Professor Sarah Pinto shared her experiences interviewing people in northern India on their perceptions of the phenomenon of birth as part of the Women's Studies Research Colloquium speech series last night.
Her talk, titled "Placenta, birth, and death: Body politics of intervention in rural India," explored the role of midwife training and the critical role of midwives, or dias, in India.
"I went to a district of Uttar Pradesh [south of Nepal] to study Indian traditional midwives or dias," said Pinto of her 2000 visit to the South Asian nation. "I was especially interested in those [midwives] trained by state programs or NGOs."
For the past five years, Pinto has been researching for her soon-to-be-released book titled "Where There Is No Midwife: Birth and Life in Rural Life in India." Most of it is based on the hundreds of interviews she conducted.
"I began the project to understand what it means to be a trained dias, as well as to learn more about the pollution ideologies," said Pinto.
The traditional caste system in Hinduism is associated with purity from forms of labor. In India, the lowest group, or the "Untouchables," are responsible for cutting the umbilical cord and disposing of the placenta after birth, she said.
"Anyone can deliver a baby in the system," Pinto told the Daily. "It is the act of cutting the cord and dealing with the placenta that dias deal with." These actions are considered "polluting," or impure, thereby placing a stigma on the dias.
Pinto also explained the misconceptions that prevail in rural Indian culture with regard to the placenta.
"Without exception, all types of women said how dangerous it can be to cut the cord and then deliver the placenta," she said. "This is how it is done every day in the Western World." Typically, the cord is cut and then the placenta is delivered. In India, the placenta is delivered before the dias cut the cord.
"Cutting the cord is considered so lowly that no one wants to do it," Pinto said. "After it is cut, [the placenta] is a serious caste form of pollution; it is defiling."
NGOs and the government are widely involved in educating post-partum specialists about the realities of the process of birth. Among the myths they are trying to dispel is that the placenta can suffocate the mother if it is not removed when the umbilical cord is cut, when in reality the cord can be cut before the placenta comes out, Pinto said.
Traditionally, family members perform births; then post-partum workers, some trained by the government, come in and care for the mother and child.
Pinto explained that, typically, the placenta of a boy is buried under the floor of his home, because "it is very much connected to his patronage." A girl's placenta, on the other hand, "must be placed in a flowing body of water, like a river, because she is to continue the flow of life."
Following her talk, Pinto spoke to the Daily about the new reincarnation of the caste system that faces India today.
"Caste has become a differentiation between Untouchables and everyone else," she said. In rural areas, poor Untouchables have difficulty obtaining the most basic of services, Pinto said.
"Intervention is needed," Pinto said. "These people need better healthcare, better doctors, and better infrastructure. It is really a study of the politics of blame."
Pinto shared a story of her travels through the countryside: in one van ride, she recalled seeing the skull of a buried child protruding from the earthen areas between fields.
Although Indians are usually cremated at death, "because [this child] hadn't reached the age of enlightenment, or puberty, [it was] buried," she said.
This highlights the high infant mortality rate in India, Pinto said, which, according to the CIA, is about 55 for every 1,000 babies born. The United States has an average of 6 deaths per thousand.
"It became impossible to talk about birth without then talking about death," Pinto said.
Her talk, the second in a series of three this term by the Women's Studies Department, filled the East Hall Lounge with 30 people in attendance.
