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RELATED THEMES gender OTHER THEMES IN NE COLLECTION THEMES IN SW COLLECTION BACKGROUND |
health in the northeast collection Health facilities in the area are limited to a basic clinic and a pharmacist who can prescribe medicine for common complaints such as diarrhoea. For many women the cost of treatment means that they only seek medical advice when absolutely necessary. One woman explained that when she was ill it was not only the expense of travel and treatment that caused financial problems but also the fact that her husband had to leave his work in the city and look after the home until she was better. Reproductive health, in particular childbirth, is discussed in almost all testimonies. Pre-natal care is an expense most women don't feel they can afford and they usually go for check-ups only if there are obvious difficulties. Most narrators gave birth to their children at home. Some were alone during childbirth like Diao'er (China 38): "I delivered my baby without any help. I just found a piece of thread to tie up the umbilical cord. The scissors were not sterilised." One 40-year-old woman (China 31) explains how she was persuaded to become a midwife: "I have delivered seven or eight children for my nephews' wives. I learned how to do it from some doctors. They told me what I should do at certain moments. We steamed the tools to make them sterile. I was asked to be the midwife for women in our village, but I said that I wasn't capable of it; besides, I was illiterate. [But] they said, "Though you can't read or write, you have a good memory." A man who was interviewed with his wife (China 39) describes helping during the birth of their daughter: "When Fengying was born, I cut the umbilical cord with the scissors...I just cut the cord, bound the wound to stop the bleeding and then wrapped the infant up in a sheet. Then I cooked something for [my wife], boiled a few eggs. She must eat something after the delivery." Confinement periods differ (poorer women have little time to recover) but during this time the new mothers are generally exempt from work and apparently eat large quantities of eggs. Although the reproductive health care facilities are minimal, there are regular population checks at Huanglonsi: "We don't have regular [health] examinations here in the village. Perhaps there are a lot of things to deal with….The policy of birth control is carried out firmly. The leaders pay an inspection visit every month" (China 31). Several also mention the regular aches and pains they experience, especially in their backs, wrists and ankles, which may be forms of arthritis. These pains are seen as the result of their heavy workloads and lack of rest following childbirth. One narrator (Junrong, China 39) explains: "Many women suffer from back pain and pain in their legs because they overwork themselves." quotes about health"When I gave birth to my son, my husband was still working in the city. He didn't come back. Now there is a clinic women can go to for a birth. But that will cost a few dozen yuan. People feel reluctant to spend that money." "Women usually [give birth] at home, because we are very poor. Going to hospital is costly, isn't it? If someone is going to give birth to a child she usually has a physical examination. If the position of the foetus is normal she will stay at home. She won't go to hospital unless she has difficulties." "I ate 50 or 60 eggs when I had my eldest child, I ate 100 eggs when I had my daughter. My older son's wife ate 200 or 300 eggs when she gave birth to my grandson. It was in the 13th in the first month of lunar calendar. My son's wife in Mancheng ate 1,000 eggs when she was in confinement. I helped her to eat them; otherwise the eggs would go bad. So I ate more eggs than I did in confinement." "Now someone is running a clinic in the village. But for ordinary people the medicines are too expensive. One dosage of medicine for cold will cost a little less than 1 yuan. One saline infusion is 20 yuan." "…nowadays people are all very pampered. They always like to go to the hospital. We never had examinations, and difficult labour was very rare. My second grandson was born in the hospital in Mancheng." "People also say that girls are more capable than boys. They will take good care of their parents. Many people in the village don't have any sons. There are 14 or 15 families that only have daughters. You can't have some [more] children even if you want to, because there is the policy of birth control. People won't take it to heart. They don't want to have lots of children." "Someone said, 'Now you are ill. Why don't you ask your husband to come back?' I said, 'For us, seeing a doctor is quite costly. If he comes off work he couldn't earn much money.' If we have a headache or a slight fever we usually buy some medicine from the village doctor. If we can bear the pain we won't go to see a doctor." |
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health in the southwest collection
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Summary
