On discernment

I meet with the health center staff every Friday morning, alternating Bible study with continuing medical education.  This week I began some basics of neonatal resuscitation in anticipation of a short seminar we will have on Tuesday, led by a visiting WHM board member who is a physician, Dr. Randy Bond.  As we talked about traditional practices, we tried to put them in three categories:  those customs that are beneficial, those that are neutral, and those that are harmful.  Since about 70% of babies are born at home, it is important for midwives and medical personnel to be in touch with home-based practices.

In the beneficial category for Bundibugyo we definitely have breast feeding—most babies are handed directly over to the mother for skin to skin contact, initiate breast feeding in the first few hours, and keep it up for two years!  Bundibugyo could teach the rest of the world a thing or two about this.  There is no shame to an exposed breast, no setting in which feeding is inappropriate.  And with encouragement a good number of grand-mothers (ladies my age!) have actually managed to re-lactate when caring for a grandchild after the death of the mother.  This we celebrate.

In the neutral category we have the disposal of the placenta.  The placenta is taken by relatives and hung from a tree.  It should not be buried or disposed of.  If it dries slowly on the tree the child will thrive.  If wild dogs come and eat it the baby is given a special name and it’s survival is in question.  On the scale of all that happens in life here . . . Hanging the placenta from a tree seems fairly benign, not hurting anyone.  So we leave that alone.

In the harmful category, treatment of the umbilical cord.  It has been common in times recently past to put animal dung or mud on the baby’s umbilical cord stump.  This, as you might imagine, is basically rubbing dirt into an open wound, not a good idea.  Thankfully the health workers have mostly convinced the public that this is not in their best interests.  The eradication of the application of harmful herbs to the eyes is almost gone, too.  One of the practices that angers me the most is the crude cutting out of baby teeth as a cure for diarrhea—this tradition we researched and found it only extends back about 30 to 40 years, having been introduced in the time of Idi Amin by his military, many of whom came from northern Ugandan tribes.  This we fight against.

It strikes me that the heart behind most of these practices is good:  parents want their children to survive, and are willing to be inconvenienced or pay fees or carry a placenta home, in order to ensure that that happens.  I try to remember that when I see those who come to the hospital as a last resort after trying something in the third category.  My judgmental heart wants to condemn them, but then I’ll see a mother crying and realize that she was pressured into the action by others, or she really believed she was doing the right thing.  And I wonder how an outside observer would categorize some of the things I do?  Pray for us as missionaries, to discern harm and fight against evil, while still having compassion on the people who do harmful things.