A Fate Better Than Death: Communities Unite To Fight Maternal Mortality In Assam

Women of a marginalized community in a state with the worst maternal health take things into their hands.

- Sarita Santoshini

In the prenatal ward of a community health center in Dhekiajuli, a small town in the state of Assam, 27-year-old Rajana Begum writhes in pain. Wrapped in a blanket beside her is her newborn daughter, to whom she gave birth the previous night. Her face lights up at my unexpected visit. ‘Please sit,’ she requests a number of times between bouts of pain that she tries to endure by shutting her eyes tightly and holding her stomach. The doctor hasn’t checked her or the baby since the delivery. She’s been prescribed painkillers but they clearly haven’t helped. Begum lives in a village about two and a half miles away, and this is the best health facility within her geographical and financial reach. ‘We’ve been trying to have a son, but God’s given me daughters all three times,’ she says. ‘I want to stop trying now; the pain is too much.’

The eight-bed ward smells of blood, excreta, and sweat. Unoccupied mattresses lie torn and the walls and floors are visibly dirty. In one of the other beds is another young woman, who lies on her stomach while her mother-in-law cradles her baby. ‘This is the only way she’s able to bear the pain,’ the mother-inlaw explains. The young mother doesn’t have the strength to talk; when she mentions her name, it’s only a whisper. I do not have the heart to ask her to repeat it.