Why the decline of traditional midwifery is a blow to rural women’s health

A few years ago, Saku Satbhara Vartha was walking in the fields in the village of Dhavgepada in Maharashtra’s Palghar district, when she heard a woman cry out in pain.

Saku, who works as a soyeen, or traditional midwife, quickly realised that a pregnant woman who had been working in the fields had gone into labour prematurely. There was no time to take her to the public health centre nearby. Saku rushed to her aid, and managed to catch the baby as it fell to the ground, while the mother stood frozen, hunched over in pain.

Saku did not have a tool with her to cut the umbilical cord, so she helped the woman walk slowly to the woman’s hut. There, the new mother finally lay down as Saku removed the umbilical cord and placenta. “I have conducted several deliveries over the years,” Saku said in the Warli language, when Scroll met her in Palghar city, on September 26. “Back then, we used to conduct deliveries at home, but today most deliveries occur in public health centres.”

“But even today, we soyeen play an important role by taking care of the pregnant women and accompanying them to the PHC,” she added.

Midwives like Saku have long been a part of...

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