Babies Galore

I have been at site for about five months and during this time three baby girls have been born in my family. Before this I really hadn't spent a lot of time with babies and young kids but I am growing to really love my youngest neighbors. Lohaimatou is now four and a half months old and so much fun to play with. She loves to smile and always responds when I make funny faces. She's also a little chunker which makes me so happy after weighing underweight and malnourished babies every week. Nuhaimatou is two and a half months old and has been very healthy since her health scare when she was a day old.

Three weeks ago, Mariam, a woman from my family, asked me to look at her health card to see when she was supposed to go in for her next pre-natal consultation since she can't read. I saw that she had missed the date so I told her to go in on Monday morning. She didn't know when she was due because she was unsure when she had gotten pregnant but I was thinking it must be soon. I didn't realize how soon though! This was her fifth pregnancy, she has two older children and two that had died. Monday morning I saw her leave for the health center very early. I went to see how her consultation went and she said everything was good and started walking home. I passed her a few minutes later on bike when I had to run an errand. I got back to the health center about 20 minutes later to find her in labor--she had never even made it home. Since no one knew she was about to give birth, they asked me to go tell the family and have them come with supplies that families provide (fabric & towels, buckets, soap, etc) for deliveries. I biked home and started explaining the news in Bissa to the other women. Less than 5 minutes later another women arrived saying Mariam had already given birth to a girl. Definitely the fastest delivery I have ever heard of! We headed back just in time to watch Mariam walk from the delivery room to the post-delivery, resting room. They handed me the baby while Mariam rested and the other women cleaned up the delivery room. Burkinabe women are so amazing and strong!

It is my understanding that in Islam, it is the tradition for babies to be baptised and given a name when they are seven days old. During the first week, it is very bad luck to call a baby by its name or to ask what the baby's name is even if it has already been decided. Baptisms are huge events in Burkina and a great opportunity for a party. I had missed the two earlier baptisms in my family so was very excited for this one. Traditionally guests give soap to the new mom since she will have lots of laundry to do. Others will give money or other baby gifts. The family then provides a huge meal to all of the guests that come. I didn't see the naming ceremony though I think it is an actual event. Instead I saw all of the men hanging out playing cards separate from the women who were talking, cooking, eating, and dancing. The women were happy to include me and we danced, played with the kid, and ate rice with a little chicken--a real treat for my family.

I don't know of any more pregnant women in my family so think it will be at least a few months until we have any new additions to the family! In the meantime, I hope to talk to them more about contraceptive use especially birth spacing which is a more accepted term here than family planning and allows the educator to focus on the health of the mother instead of preventing pregnancies.