I explored childbirth in the Philippines. I was interested in this country because I lived there for 3 years when I was in elementary and middle school. I always love to learn more about that country through adult eyes. What I read said that there is often a lot of superstition practices throughout a woman's pregnancy and also tied to the use of birth control in this country. There were two main options for the actual childbirth. The first was government run hospitals for the nearly 40% of urban poor or at home childbirth. I also read that childbirth can be seen as a family event and there is not much privacy for a laboring woman. Every female relative is usually present at a birth and throughout the labor. What I read of the government run hospitals for much of the urban poor is that you need to have cash and family members to care for you during your labor. The cash is so that you can pay for the materials that are needed for you labor or baby. I also read that in some government run hospitals, sanitary practices are not the same as those in the United States. One midwife described a doctor running surgical instruments under tap water before using them on a mother and having 4-5 mothers laboring in a group bed at the same time. Researching births in other countries is interesting to me because even though people birth different ways and may not have all the luxuries we have in the US, woman still have beautiful experiences that end with beautiful children.
