YouTube Transcript:
Natural Birthing - A Promise of Dignity in Birth | Dr Evita Fernandez | TEDxHyderabadWomen
Skip watching entire videos - get the full transcript, search for keywords, and copy with one click.
Share:
Video Transcript
View:
[Music]
everybody I have enjoyed the privilege
of walking with women through their
Journeys into
motherhood and I was riding the crest
two decades and more into my career I
felt I was good I was safe and a skilled competent
competent
obstetrician but a series of events made
me stop and think and I realized
childbirth was facing a
crisis largely because we Obstetricians
had done that we had turned something
that was natural
physiological into a medical
emergency we were
intervening we were doing things which
were not necessary because we thought at
the time they were
right you know now that the C-sections
have been rising and what more is you
know what is more important is that
women all over have been subjected to
disrespect and abuse not given choices
coerced into doing
things so with this
reflection it led me to begin an inhouse
midre Education and Training Program and
it came out of conviction so we launched
a campaign called Promise because we
felt we needed a unique CER to take care
of women and humanize
birthing it also led me to reflect on
respectful maternity care I began to
reflect on disrespect and abuse and I
realized it's a
basic human right for every every
childbearing woman no matter which part
of the world she is and which health
facility she wishes to birth in why are
we talking about that
today we know the way we are born and
matters why does it matter because a
woman's birthing
experience leaves her with memories that
can either EMP power her or scar her for
Life a woman's birthing experience has
long-term major implications on her
future health and that of her
baby so ladies and gentlemen I stand here
here today
today
enlightened admitting that I had made mistakes
mistakes
unknowingly and today I am absolutely
convinced we need a radical change
practices why why do we need to do this
why do we need to provide that
environment for women to birth because
through my Midwifery program not as an
obstetrician I realized I discovered the
hard truth that birth memories are
longlasting and imprinted on a woman's
mind till she dies and I began to
reflect on the language I may have used
as a young
obstetrician being insensitive to this
and how I might have emotionally scarred women
women
unknowingly now we know that if a woman
is supported through her labor given the
choice of a birth companion allowed to
walk around and finally birth in the
position of her
choice she steps into motherhood
confident empowered with a feeling of
accomplishment and after that if she's
been allowed to hold her baby close to
her chest skin to skin breastfeed her
baby within an hour not separated from
her at all she's firmly established that
Bond and this mother and baby are ready
to meet the world world but let's look
at a young woman at
20 first time mother to be has
absolutely no access to this information
is not prepared has no idea of what's
going to happen and she is going into
this birthing
room sees
strangers probably sees a staff a group
that's tired exhausted rude is not
allowed a birth companion made to lie
flat on her back which is the most
comfortable position and mind you we
were trained to birth people on their
backs which was
wrong and is probably verbally and
physically abused now this woman is
going to be scarred for the rest of her
life emotionally
psychologically and what is going to
happen she's going to be filled with
fear so much fear that she may never
want to conceive so much fear that if
she does conceive she doesn't want to go
back to a health care
facility and maybe she would birth alone
at home unassisted even though she faces
the risk of dying we also know that
these negative birth experiences cause
post-traumatic stress disorder and
postnatal depression
women don't need to be subjected to
this in
2014 the World Health Organization came
out with a very powerful statement says
every woman no matter which part of the
world she is has a right to dignified
respectful care during pregnancy and child
child
birth we are all mammals and I think we
can learn a lesson from the Animal
Kingdom look at this her of
elephants giving that amazing space for
a mama elephant who's birthing
inside the elephants are providing that
Mama Elephant with privacy and she feels
safe why is it we don't do this for our
women in this country I'd like to take
you to this
image and this is what we see this is
the reality across our country we have
23 million births a year 60% of which
happens in public hospitals but mind you
disrespect and abuse is across public
and private
hospitals how dare that young man stands
at the foot end of the bed answering US
Mobile while there are two women on the
flat of their backs half naked stripped
of all all dignity and this is a
teaching Hospital producing our next
generation of Obstetricians the
government is encouraging Hospital
births and more so we are incentivizing
it so our public hospitals are flooded
with young mothers but not necessarily
getting the best care so if you look at
the volumes that are coming in we don't
have the supporting infrastructure
we don't have staff there's no running
water there are no clean toilets there
are no
beds so what's the
solution we need to first begin by
empowering our women we need to tell
every childbearing woman her basic
rights teach her the human rights in
child birth so she knows what she can
demand what she can ask for and that is
so important important and the icing on
the cake would be to prepare her to
handle labor with child birth
classes and look at this picture of a
midwife in a district hospital where we
have are working with the Telangana
government in training nurses for
Midwifery she's taking child birth
classes for a group of women who were
waiting in the anti-natal clinic they
have about 200 mothers every morning and
what happen happened with these midwives
increase the second and the most
important change simple no
Hightech do not allow a woman to birth
alone it's a violation gross violation
of her basic human
rights no woman should ever birth alone
and majority of our women in this
country birth alone even in private
hospitals across the country now that is
a scene from The District Hospital in
telengana that never allowed Companions
and you see that young woman with her
husband so this group of Midwifery
students in Telangana with 800 births in
a month are causing ripples women are
birthing in positions of their
choice we know that if a woman has a
companion she can
trust she does not feel afraid that
companion can give her the emotional
support psychological support and also
the Practical support of a back rub a
massage give give her enough liquids
assure her but most
importantly the companion is an advocate
for the mother and when a woman has a
birth companion the staff are less
likely to be
disrespectful so no woman should birth
alone and every woman should be told it
is her right and we should join that
movement where women are going to say I
am not going to get into the delivery
room without a companion
and I'm all ready to join this
movement but majority of our women are
alone and this is what we saw when I was
walking through one of our public
hospitals with the Royal College of midy
the president and it broke our hearts to
see this woman lying alone on a stone floor
floor
alone in
labor why should our women be subjected
to this birth is the most significant
event in a woman's life and we need to
treat it with the respect and dignity
the sacredness it deserves so what's the
solution I am convinced we need
professional midwives and professional
Midwifery has to form the backbone of
our maternity services in this country
women should ask for professional midwife
midwife
um because who is a professional Midwife
this image shows our young Midwife Asha
homegrown in fernandas and just look at
the way she's serving that woman in
labor a professional Midwife is somebody
who goes through very focused training
she may be a nurse or she could be a
direct andry in India we have nurses who
then go through a minimum period of 2
years of focused training
and they only work with lowrisk
uncomplicated pregnancies and these
mothers form
85% of the pregnant population so 85% of
you who are uncomplicated you don't need
to see us Obstetricians you are far
safer in the hands of a professional
Midwife because she is trained in
normality and if there is a little
deviation she will call the doctor or
refer you but as long as you're
uncomplicated she's there she's highly
skilled very confident and accountable
for both lives and there's enough
research to show that countries that
invest in midwives it's the most cost
effective solution because you've got a
highly skilled CER that focuses on the
mother during her pregnancy labor birth
helps her take care of of the newborn
and helps her with
lactation now we have invested in midv
from August
2011 and for 60 years women in Fernandez
only saw a doctor but now in the last s
years Our Midwives have birthed almost
9,000 women and we privileged to look
after the whole socioeconomic Spectrum
today women are asking for midwives not
asking for us Obstetricians so so we've
broken through the glass ceiling and I
stand here in front of you and I appeal
to the women who have uncomplicated
pregnancies ask for a professional
Midwife and this is the group in
Telangana you can see how happy they are
they call themselves the Agents of
change finally and this is probably the
most difficult solution the obstetric
fraternity to which I belong we
we
Obstetricians need to shed a lot of what we've
we've
learned we need to unlearn and we need
to open our minds to evidence-based
practices we need to shed all the
archaic practices that we were taught
because they have no scientific sense we
need to open our hearts and minds and
embrace professional midwives as colleagues
colleagues
because when we do that we put the woman
and her baby in the center of all our
decisions and only when we do that every
pregnant woman will feel cherished
respected I long for the day when in
India every pregnant woman will see a
midwife first and only if necessary will
and that is the vision we have at
fernandas We Believe very strongly in
this and respectful care because ladies
I'm sure you agree with me if a
Community Values its
children it must cherish its mothers
[Applause] [Music]
Click on any text or timestamp to jump to that moment in the video
Share:
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
One-Click Copy125+ LanguagesSearch ContentJump to Timestamps
Paste YouTube URL
Enter any YouTube video link to get the full transcript
Transcript Extraction Form
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
Get Our Chrome Extension
Get transcripts instantly without leaving YouTube. Install our Chrome extension for one-click access to any video's transcript directly on the watch page.
Works with YouTube, Coursera, Udemy and more educational platforms
Get Instant Transcripts: Just Edit the Domain in Your Address Bar!
YouTube
←
→
↻
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc
YoutubeToText
←
→
↻
https://youtubetotext.net/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc