Pregnant and Breastfeeding.

Today I'm going to write about pregnancy in villages of Northern and Western Honduras. Next blog post I'll write about how witchcraft and superstition have a huge role in pregnancy, but first the basics of cultural norms and ideas to later understand the more complicated things. Know that everything I write here does NOT apply to all areas of Honduras. Communities and regions vary and this is simply a compilation of everything that I found very interesting/unusual from different areas all grouped together in one place.

Women tend to get pregnant very young here. It is not uncommon to see a 14 year old girl pregnant with her first child, or a woman in her early 20's who is pregnant with her third or fourth child. Marriage is kind of a funny thing here too. Many people get pregnant out of wed lock, yes, but even if a couple has been together for over 20 years, live together, have children, etc they may never get married. There's just not a big emphasis on getting 'officially' married in certain communities, and for a man it is easily dismissed if he has fathered children from different women, and he still goes back to his wife, or 'committed' life partner, because he is the man and he is macho. The machismo mentality is very extreme here, and gender roles are rigid. The locals are always surprised when they find out I'm almost 20 years old and a) I don't have any children yet and b) I'm single/not married.

Feelings and cultural attitudes from women here about being pregnant vary within the emotions of embarrassment, sadness, shame, fear, anxiety, excitement, joy, happiness, and pride. Although it is "accepted" to be pregnant at a young age or as a single woman, 'accepted' is not exactly the correct word. Yes, it happens often but it happens to these women and they do not go without paying an emotional and social price for it. There is always the obvious point of everyone realizing she was with a man whom she was not committed to/married to and the judgement that comes along with that, and also the loss of many freedoms/dreams she may have had for herself to do better than her parents or siblings and to move further from poverty. With a baby, she is now taking steps backward instead of forward. Interestingly enough, no matter the situation she is in with her life and now being pregnant, almost always without fail, there's a light that turns on so now she is joyful despite everything else, if she was not trying to become pregnant when she found out. Yes, there still may be some fear and anxiety--but just like the men thrive off of the machismo idea, the women have one thing the man cannot do: have a baby. Obviously, the men have a role in making this possible, but actually a lot of women don't even consider them important for this and refer to it as MY baby, not 'our' baby, and they make this distinction very very clear. Fertility is key. They take an incredible amount of pride in their fertility, and often times a woman is more likely to be married after she's already had a healthy child because now she is a desirable potential wife, because the men know she is fertile and will have healthy children.

Childbirth. Families are becoming more comfortable with the idea of having their babies delivered in the hospital and it's becoming more common. A rough estimate would be...about half of lower class women have babies at home still. It's expensive (well, about $130 American currency--which is a LOT for a Honduran family to save up) to have their baby at Hospital Loma de Luz.

Miscarriages. Unfortunately, they are very very common. I know one woman who has 3 children and has had 12 miscarriages over her lifetime thus far. It truly is heartbreaking, but for them it has become just a part of life they deal with. Many factors play into this: malnutrition/imbalanced diet, lack of folic acid, infections, insufficient prenatal care in general, and HIV/AIDS are all major contributors to this. Twelve miscarriages is pretty extreme, yes, but having at least one miscarriage during a woman's life is fairly common.

Breast feeding. Breastfeeding is a completely different thing here than in the States. First off, legs are considered to have more sex appeal than breasts, so short skirts/shorts are considered scandalous and a tight low-cut shirt is not. The reason for this is breasts are seen more as a necessary food source in taking care of infants than anything else. For example, if I'm trying to take the temperature of an infant in the waiting room and he/she won't stop crying, usually the mother will just pull half of her shirt (or down, if it was already fairly low-cut) and breastfeed the baby so it won't cry and move while I'm taking its vital signs. No blankie to cover up, and no second thought to the fact there are people walking by, and she's also sitting next to people she's never met. In fact, if a non-Honduran woman living here breastfeeds her baby in public and uses a blankie or something to maintain modesty people will make fun of her or think she's weird because they see that as a sign of being ashamed of her body and not having pride in her fertility. A fellow missionary here told me a story of how he went to a Honduran wedding a few years ago and the bride had a newborn baby that was only a few months old and it wouldn't stop crying during the ceremony so someone brought it up to her in the middle of the ceremony and she started breastfeeding it to make it stop crying. Yes, breastfeeding your child during your wedding ceremony. I think this case is a little extreme, but apparently it happens! Haha.

Alright, that's all I have time to write about for now, but I can't wait to write about some of the freaky witchcraft and superstitious beliefs that have a huge influence on pregnancy and childbirth here. Gracias for reading and thank you for your prayers!

Que Dios le bendiga,
Maria