Ignorance is not bliss

03/09/2008Ignorance is not bliss – but the difference between life and death in Guinea, says BMS nurse Sarah HallThe United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are an attempt by the world to bring more equality into aspects of life that those of us from the West take for granted. The 2007 MDGs report states: “Each year, more than 500,000 women die from treatable or preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth. In sub-Saharan Africa, a woman’s risk of dying from such complications over the course of her lifetime is one in 16 compared to one in 3,800 in the developed world.”

I’ve been working here in Guinea for seven years now, and I have come to appreciate the dedication, hard work and perseverance of the women I know. Their lives are difficult. One of my friends worked for weeks, breaking large boulders of granite into small stones with a hand tool. Having made ‘200 stacks’ she’s hoping that someone will pass by and purchase her stones, but is still waiting for that moment.

The vast majority of the women I know never had a chance to go to school, so they’ve never learned to read and write. Research shows that if the mother of a family has received some education, then her children have a greater chance of survival. Ignorance is not bliss but the difference between life and death.

Women making choices

That is where Odette, my co-worker in our ‘programme of community health’, and I come in. We’ve been working with groups of women to help them understand how they can make choices which will lead to improved health for them and their children. One of the series of seminars is directly related to their sexual and maternal health and these have been eagerly received. At the Télékoro Bible Institute, the director invited us to lead seminars with the wives of the pastoral students. We were able to talk about issues that touch their lives daily, like contraception.

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Many of the women knew of only two methods of contraception – the first being no sex and the second a saucepan with special leaves in it, turned upside down and placed under the bed.

The first is the most effective but does not encourage a strong marital relationship! For many of the local tribes, a man is disgraced if his wife falls pregnant whilst breastfeeding. Knowing that the turned-over saucepan is not very effective, no sex has been the only possibility. And a mother will breastfeed for between two and three years and have an average of six babies. This has huge consequences for a Christian couple in a society where marital faithfulness is not expected and HIV is a growing threat.

Women and men together making choices

We talked to the women about changing customs and taboos, and finding ways to continue having sexual relations with their husbands even during breastfeeding. The possibilities are there, contraception is available and even affordable as the price is subsidised. But talking to the women was not enough – we needed to talk to the men and at the end of the week, we were able to talk with the couples together. We discussed their fears, answered their questions and started to open the door to other possibilities.

There were a few women who were very willing to talk to their husbands. Rosalie was one of them. She had eight children and would soon stop breastfeeding her last child. She knew that without help, she would soon fall pregnant again, something she really wanted to avoid. And so we took time to talk to her and to her husband, and were able to advise them about methods of contraception that would be suitable for them. The next day, I saw her in church: it was as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

Twenty couples can begin to make new choices for their futures. The beauty of teaching them is that in the future, they will be leaders – in their churches and in the communities where they live, and so their new knowledge will be useful not only to them but to the people around them.

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So my presence here has impacted a few lives, and your prayers and giving have allowed me to be here and has made a difference, perhaps not on a global scale, but in small ways, touching the lives of individual women and their families. It won’t show up as a percentage mark in the Millennium Development Goals, but it’s there never the less.

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