Baa baa meme sheep

[rivka]

Via fairoriana:

Post 3 things you've done in your lifetime that you don't think anybody else on your friends list has done.

See if anybody else responds with "I've done that."

Ask your friends do this in their journals to see what unique things they've done.

1. I dyed monkeys different colors. (I tested their vision, too, but that seems less outre.)

2. I interviewed Transylvanian villagers about their parenting practices.

3. I chauffeured Mary Daly around in my car.

Edited to add: I thought this one seemed familiar! The last time it came around there were ten things. I am interested to see that the Transylvanian one came out in the exact same words, years apart.

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Last time I did this meme, I listed "I've picked up a hitchhiker knowing he was carrying a gun" and sure enough, someone else had done that, too.

K. [Game Over]

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

1. Helped Joe Louis to the toilet.

2. Prepped a former Minnesota governor for a prostate exam.

3. Crawled into a morgue refrigerator.

(And that's just the hospital stuff!)

[naomikritzer]

I interviewed Nepali villagers about their childbirth practices, but not Transylvanians nor parenting practices.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I'd be fascinated to hear more about that.

Talking with the Transylvanians gave me a much clearer picture of what preindustrial parenting practices were probably like, outside the narrow geographical range of abundant supplies and mild environmental threats. They swaddled their babies, for example - not to preserve a mystical mother-child closeness but to create a more convenient package that could be stowed out of the way while Mom worked in the fields. And the preschoolers looked after the toddlers. They totally loved their kids, but they had harsh lives with a lot of demands in them.

[naomikritzer]

Nepali parenting is similar. Babies were nearly always tied to someone's back, because it freed up your hands. Children worked extremely hard from about age six, and babysitting the toddlers was definitely one of the jobs they were expected to do in their free time.

At one point I got to hold someone's newborn; I was twenty-one, and I had no real idea how to hold a newborn baby, other than that I needed to support the head. The idea of a grown woman who needed help holding a baby was hilarious to the onlookers.

[naomikritzer]

Also, childbirth:

Nearly all babies in Nepal are born at home. There's no caste or professional class of midwives -- if you've had a baby yourself, it's assumed that you can probably help someone else have hers. Most women are attended by their mother-in-law and possibly their sister or best friend, if those people are close enough to come for the labor.

Not surprisingly, mortality is high both for infants and mothers, though it's much lower than you'll find in most of Africa. Aid groups and the Nepali government looked at safety in childbirth like this: there are some women and infants who will die unless you can perform a c-section. Those mothers and babies are doomed, because most Nepalis don't have ready access to a hospital, and that's not going to change anytime soon. The focus is very much on those people who will do fine with basic home care. In 1993, 30% of neonatal deaths in Nepal occurred due to tetanus because the birth attendant cut the umbilical cord with something unsanitary. Nepali men shave, so most Nepali homes include a razor blade, and that is very unlikely to cause tetanus; getting people to use a razor blade for this is just a matter of telling them in such a way that they'll remember to do it.

My host family always used a razor blade. Apparently ten years earlier, someone's cousin went to a health training session with the government, and came away telling everyone that a shaving blade was the optimal cord-cutting instrument....because it's really sharp and will cut through the umbilical cord easily. Everyone agreed emphatically: it's a great tool for this purpose.

The anthropology books will say that Nepali women are supposed to abstain from all work for a month after delivery, because they are considered "unclean" and must not touch food, etc. The Tibetan obstetrician I interviewed scoffed and said that Tibetan women rest after delivery because having a baby is hard work and they are damn well entitled to some time off. Also, if you visit the mother, you're supposed to bring with you a live chicken, which her family can then slaughter to make her a nice, nourishing soup. My host family, who were Brahmin farmers, on the other hand -- I asked if the women took time off after the birth and they laughed and shook their heads. There was too much to do. Apparently the daughter-in-law had once given birth in the rice fields during the harvest season; her husband had attended her birth, strapped the baby to her back, and she'd gone straight back to work.

While I was there, Save the Children and the Ministry of Health, along with a few other aid organizations, were working on a project called the Safe Home Birth Kit. It was being test-marketed while I was there and I interviewed someone who was selling them from a health post. Since there were no midwives you could train, the kit was designed to get the basic knowledge and tools into the hands of whichever female relative happened to be around when the baby was born. The WHO will talk about the "three cleans" that are needed for a basic safe birth: a clean surface, clean hands, and a clean cord. So the kit contained a plastic sheet, a bar of soap, three strings to tie the cord, a plastic disk to put the cord on when you cut it, a razor blade, and illustrated instructions. Everything is packed into a box the size of a paperback book. It was being sold for about 50 cents, because people are more likely to use something if they've purchased it than if you give it to them for free.

About a year after I studied in Nepal, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton went, and apparently went to a presentation on the Safe Home Birth Kit, which had been a huge success and was being expanded nationwide.

[naomikritzer]

One other random thing. I interviewed various random doctors while I was there, including one who ran a "nursing home," which is to say, a private hospital. She specialized in obstetrics. She was something of a control freak (NO HUSBANDS IN THE DELIVERY ROOM. THEY WILL BE IN THE WAY.) but just out of curiosity, I asked her how much it cost for a woman to have a baby at this hospital. If you went with the private room, which had an extra bed for the husband to sleep in (not a fold-out couch, a real bed), and a nursing ratio of something like one nurse for every two patients, and you had a reasonably uncomplicated delivery (i.e., no c-section), your final bill when you checked out would be $65.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

This is fascinating, thank you.

[bosssio.livejournal.com]

This is absolutely fascinating stuff!!!

Were you in Peace Corps?

[chargirlgenius.livejournal.com]

That sounds very much like early childhood in the Middle Ages. People think that it’s barbaric to hang a swaddled baby up on the wall or from a tree, but that’s what’s going to keep the child safe from pigs, dogs, and other dangers while the mother is out working in the fields.

Not surprisingly, accidents such as falling into ditches or the fire were the largest cause of child mortality in Medieval England.

As for children watching children, there are court cases where pre-school aged children (3-4) were held culpable for the accidental deaths of their charges.

I’m utterly fascinated by what you and naomikritzer have written here.