By Nnenna Joseph

You will give birth like the Hebrew women is one of the most common prayers said to expectant mothers in this part of the world. According to the Bible, in Exodus 1 vs 19, “The Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they give birth easily, and their babies are born before either of us gets there."

In the stone age, women had linear methods of child delivery which was limited to the baby coming out through the vagina after the woman pushes the baby in a systematic method a number of times. It will be referred to in this article as Vaginal birth. Complications resulting from vaginal birth cost women their lives. When a woman is unable to push forth a child, the baby and mother may die in the womb.

However, there came a time in the roman empire where there was a need to increase the population under the Roman emperor, Julius Caesar. The Roman law under Caesar decreed that all women who were so fated by childbirth must be cut open and the child saved; hence, it got its name cesarean operation subsequently renamed Cesarean section (C-section).
Another early practice of cesarean section is attributed to religion wherefore religious edicts enforce that the infant must be buried separately from the mother.

There are other methods of childbirth which include Natural birth, Vaginal birth, Scheduled cesarean, unplanned cesarean, Vaginal birth after C-section, scheduled induction.

From their names, one can tell their attributes and characteristics. For the purpose of this article, we will dwell on the Cesarean section and vaginal birth.

Nigeria has one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates. According to Wiley online library, in 2019, One hundred and forty‐five Nigerian women die in childbirth every day and 53,000 women per-year according to a UNICEF report. One reason Patients often decline C-sections, even when it could save lives: C-sections are stigmatized in Nigeria. This causes many women to resist the surgery, or hide it when they do go through with it. Most women keep it a secret from members of their family. If you tell Nigerians that you are going to go through the Caesarean section, they will tell you, God forbid. This is a function of misguided religious and traditional misconceptions.

In Northern Nigeria, the religion they practice and their traditional beliefs do not hamper on these things. If a northern expectant mother decides not to use C-section it is a function of her inability to raise the finance required. The above assertion is prevalent in southern Nigeria.

Religion convinced southern women they have to deliver like “Hebrew women” therefore they want nothing to do with C-section because God will always see them through. Oftentimes than not, 99.9% of these women die in the process of trying to push.

Another misgiving is, women who are unable to give birth through the vagina are said to be weak, it is translated that the woman does not have the strength to push a baby therefore has to resort to help by cutting her open. Women who go through with this are stigmatized and seen as fewer women than others. Women are seen bragging about their ability to give birth to their children through the vagina, using the emphasis to shame women who couldn't.

Continue......https://www.anaedoonline.ng/2020/09/18/vaginal-birth-or-caesarean-section-in-the-nigerian-context-myths-and-choices/

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