2023-06-29 04:52:42
BBC Katja hopes memories of her work will keep her happy in retirement
“I delivered more than 10,000 babies successfully, all of them were normal births and there were no deaths at my hands.”
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Katiga Bibi takes a look back at her 33-year career and recalls how she helped women in their most vulnerable moments.
During its existence, India has gone from a country that had high mortality rates among new mothers, to one that is closer to the global average.
It also witnessed the desire of people to form smaller families and to appreciate the “born female” and not to get rid of it.
Katja was pregnant for the first time when she started working at the Government Health Center in South India in 1990.
“I was seven months pregnant, yet I was helping other women,” recalls a calm Katieja.
I’m back following a short maternity leave of only two months. “I know how anxious women can be when they go into labor, so making them feel comfortable and confident was a priority.”
Her clinic is located in Villupuram, 150 kilometers south of Chennai, in the state of Tamil Nadu. The clinic was not equipped to perform caesarean sections, so if she discovered any complications, she would send the mother immediately to the county hospital.
Great legacy
Katiga’s mother, Zulekha, who also worked as a nurse in the village, inspired her to work in the same field. “I used to play with injections as a child. I used to smell like a hospital.”
At an early age, she realized the importance of her mother’s work in providing health care to poor, uneducated rural women.
At that time, the number of private hospitals was very small, and women from all social backgrounds were dependent on the government maternity home which is now called the Primary Health Centre.
“When I started, there was a doctor, seven assistants and two other nurses,” Katja says. “It was very hectic for the first few years. I mightn’t take care of my kids. I missed the family duties, but those days gave me a very valuable learning experience.”
In 1990, the maternal mortality rate in India was 556 deaths per 100,000 live births.
In the same year, India recorded 88 deaths out of every 1,000 births.
The latest government figures show that the infant mortality rate is 97 per 100,000 births, and the infant mortality rate is 27 per 1,000 births.
Katja attributes this progress to government investment in the rural healthcare sector and high rates of female literacy. She was at the forefront of this transformation and witnessed India’s rising birth rate with her own eyes.
Normally, Katja would deal with one or two deliveries, but she simply remembers how crowded her days were with patients.
March 8th, 2000, was the busiest day of my life.”
It is International Women’s Day – everyone who enters the clinic greets and congratulates her on that day.
“There were two women waiting for their labour, I helped them deliver their babies, and then six other women entered our clinic.”
Katieja only had one assistant, but she soon forgot regarding the stress. “When I was regarding to leave that day, I might hear the babies crying one by one, it was such a wonderful feeling. There was a lot of momentum in our health center and everyone was very happy.”
The nurse estimates that she has helped deliver 50 pairs of twins and one pair of triplets.
During the early 1990s, a pregnant woman was screaming in pain.
Katja thought they might be twins, but her clinic didn’t have an ultrasound to tell.
Within minutes of the birth of the first child, the woman went into labor once more and delivered the second child.
When Katja came out of the room to wash the children, the mother started screaming in pain.
“I was so nervous, it was a new situation for me, and I wasn’t ready,” she says.
“Considering the condition of that woman, it was impossible to send her to the district hospital.” Katieja gently massaged the woman’s head in an attempt to calm her down and the third child arrived.
The district administration has confirmed Katiga’s record of delivering 10,000 babies and has also received an award from the Chief Minister.
BBC Katja says the equipment on the maternity ward has improved a lot over the past three decades
suffering and loss
Katja says that women from wealthy families now prefer to go to private hospitals. There is also a tendency to opt for a caesarean section at the first possible opportunity.
“My mother saw a lot of deaths during childbirth,” Katja says. Caesarean sections have saved many lives. “When I started, women were afraid of surgeries at the time, but now the situation is reversed, as many women fear natural childbirth and choose surgery.”
She saw it in her family too, as she hoped her daughter-in-law would give birth naturally, but she had to go to the hospital.
“I still think the surgery might have been avoided if I had been there with her, but I don’t blame the doctors or health workers. I really feel that there is no need for a caesarean section in many cases, and normal delivery is possible if there is full support for the pregnant woman,” she says.
As the incomes of rural households have improved in the past three decades, special challenges have also emerged. Gestational diabetes used to be a rare condition, but now it is very common.
There has been a massive societal shift, and Katiga is now receiving more requests from husbands keen to accompany their wives during childbirth. “I’ve seen the bad times and the good times. Some husbands refused to visit their pregnant wives who were expecting female children, and some of them cried when they were having a second or third child.”
In the 1990s, cases of sex-selective abortions were reported, and female infanticide was so widespread that the government prohibited doctors from disclosing the sex of the child to the parents.
The Tamil Nadu government has also launched a “Baby Cradle Scheme” to take care of unwanted girls.
“Now, the scenario has changed, as many couples choose to have only two children regardless of the sex of the child,” Katja says.
Unfortunately, Katija’s husband passed away seven years ago.
Her daughter is a software engineer and her son is a mechanical engineer in Dubai.
Her daughter-in-law wants Katieja to live with them and spend the rest of her life with her grandchildren.
Katja, 60, has no firm plans for the future when she retires at the end of this month, but she knows what she will miss.
“I always look forward to hearing the shrill, piercing first cry of a newborn,” she says.
“You know, even women who are going through painful labour, forget all the pain and just smile when they hear their babies crying,” she says. Watching this relief was an exhilarating experience for me. It has been an emotional journey for me all these years.”
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