I have been trying to make light of when the shift of home birth to hospital birth became the norm in Māori society. It appears that decisions based purely on say so and laws made this move or should I say forced this move. Along with the ever increasing spread of diseases and apparent un-savory conditions of Māori homes, that gave this idea of hospital being safer. This is the part that I find gets my wick up in terms of forced hospital birthing.
Small Pox and Typhoid, two introduced epidemics almost saw the near extinction of Māori. This saw a *noted* decrease in population numbers in rural communities. The passing of the Tōhunga Suppression Act 1907, saw the use of Tōhungaism an act against the law. The introduction of Māori advocates in our communities, had them monitoring the local goings on to more a less police Māori. This meant that who ever practiced Tōhunga acts was fined or jailed. A Tōhunga was also responsible for attending births, which assisted in the safe delivery of all babies into the world, by way of prayers and acknowledgement to Io and our Atua (guardians) who nurture the birthing rite of passage. Hospitals meant the reliance on a system new to Māori and most importantly new to our culture. Couple this with communication issues and a hospital environment, makes for an unhealthy spiritual experience (or lack of) in a clinical setting. A matron or two no doubt, holding your legs in a foreign against gravity way. Or for the horror in stirrups with your legs wide open for who? Oh yes the male doctor between your legs.
How degrading must it have felt as a Māori woman to show your Whare Tangata to a male who wasn't your partner or female relative? And we Māori were frowned upon for being bastard heathens with no morals or values. Appears to me, we had more concern about our personal and private functions than these so called medical professionals. Ultimately I'm saying we didn't own our births once the hospitals got their grubby mitts on us. We were forced out of our birthing zones of having immediate female relatives present, who attended to our birthing needs in a guiding, spiritual and holistic environment. Our Tōhunga (spiritual leaders) were disregarded as existing and to top it off. A private environment was no longer present for us to birth. No more Whāre Kōhanga (nesting houses births and no consideration for our needs as birthing women. We were now regarded as main stream birthers with color, language barriers and of low socio economic backgrounds, with high risk needs purely for being Māori. Try tell me I'm wrong in this. I've done my research and while some aspects of hospital settings 'back in the day's' birth wise are nothing short of miraculous. They were also nothing short of barbaric, disrespectful and insensitive. As Māori and women, our bodies were considered sacred due to their ability to sustain, nurture and bring forth life. Birth was spiritual in all aspects as was the postpartum period, where the Whēnua (afterbirth) was taken by an attendant to be buried in a sacred place. The cords were cut using a sharp obsidian after being tied off using stripped Harakēkē (flax) fibre. The remaining Pītō (umbilicus stump) was then treated with Tītoki Tree oil, then left to fall off when it was ready. Complete this process with breastfeeding and our future generations are set for the first part of life as Māori in the physical world. Once the postpartum bleeding stage was complete, mother, newborn, attendants and Tōhunga emerged. The Whāre Kōhanga was then burnt & the Tapū of all was lifted, to ensure safety in moving on to the next process of motherhood.
Our afterbirths weren't fiddled with, cut open or had stem cell cord blood leached from them. We didn't disregard our afterbirth by sending it to the biohazard disposal unit. We didn't eat our afterbirth for nutrients or to battle postpartum depression, for the fact we were communal dwellers. We had the ongoing support of the community there to assist and nurture this Pēpī (baby) as if they were their own. Babies born into our community were considered everyones babies, which ensured their upbringing in loving environments and learning from a young age the concept of Whānaungātangā (family). These are the values that are embraced very sparingly and unwillingly in some cases today.
No comments:
Post a Comment