After many years of witnessing first hand and studying the current status quo of Caesarian sections in childbirth in South Africa, I am presenting a Cape Town VBAC Stats and Facts Workshop at Mtwana Birth Centre on 11th July 2016.
Politics and midwifery have been closely intertwined in South African Apartheid history and the women’s liberation movement. Western models of childbirth were accepted at the expense of indigenous wisdom and knowledge.
It is interesting for me how the rainbow nation of South Africa is fusing and changing cultures. Now a Xhosa woman may give birth in water, cut her own baby’s cord and give birth in a hospital or birth centre. Birth in the Xhosa culture, is an important rite of passage and is therefore treated with due respect, honour and celebration.