Nyamakuta : the one who receives

Author / Creator

Sheppard, Chris

Available as

Online

Summary

Mai Mafuta is a nyamakuta - a traditional midwife - in Zimbabwe. Half of all births in the developing world are attended by women like her, without the help of modern medicine. People seek her out ...

Mai Mafuta is a nyamakuta - a traditional midwife - in Zimbabwe. Half of all births in the developing world are attended by women like her, without the help of modern medicine. People seek her out because she is skillful, compassionate, and because her grandmother was also a midwife. Five years ago, Mai Mafuta s skills were inadequate to save her own daughter's life and she died in childbirth. In an attempt to prevent such deaths, over eighty countries have begun training traditional midwives in modern medical methods. Mai Mafuta enrolled in one such program. Now she tries to reconcile what she has learned at the clinic with traditional birth practices. We see her deliver a child on the dirt floor of a hut. Mai Mafuta narrates her own story, giving the audience an intimate view of the lives of Third World women.

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