By Olufunke Faluyi
This week, I had to stop the plan to start a new series just to share something that has bothered me for so long. Although, what I am about to say is a clear deviation from what you are used to, still, I do not think it is a bad idea if I use this platform to project what will benefit us all. Before I hit the nail on the head, let me share some stories with you.
In 2018, a woman who used to live close to my mother’s shop died because she refused to have her babies (a twin pregnancy) through caesarean section. Each time her picture flashes through my mind, I get goose bumps. There is a second woman, she was advised not to have her baby in the hospital and where she went to she had a difficult labour. She did not only lose the child, she lost her womb too and she never got pregnant again.
Apart from the fact that a woman may be afraid that she may lose her life during caesarean delivery, the major reason women run away from it is due to religious beliefs and that is the angle I want to come in on this discussion. I am sorry. I am going to sound a bit religious to drive home my point. The usual scenario at the point a woman is told to prepare for a caesarean delivery (also called a C-section) is that you will start hearing things such as, “I shall deliver like a Hebrew woman, God did not make a covenant of delivering through caesarean section with me.” The next thing you see is that she stops attending her antenatal clinics and when labour starts, she will not go to the hospital. Some are lucky but most are unlucky because they lose their babies, some have serious complications and some even die during labour. Our clergymen always give their support to women in times like this. They are always backing them up on the “no to caesarean delivery” stance. Older women, especially the mother of the woman in labour, is not left out in this especially if she had all her children vaginally, that is when you hear things such as “a kii fi obe gba ebi ewure” meaning “a goat does not deliver through caesarean section.”
Are we not getting our faith twisted? Okay, let us go on a journey to make things clearer. At creation, God put Adam to sleep and removed one of his ribs to make Eve. Is that not how doctors put women to sleep before a caesarean section and their babies are removed from their wombs? So, God himself is an anaesthesiologist and a surgeon! And like the Yoruba will say, “ eni bi ni la n jo,” meaning the apple never falls far from the tree. What doctors do is that they are just continuing from where God stopped!
Do not get me wrong, there is nothing wrong in having faith but what I am trying to say is that people should add wisdom to their faith. Having a caesarean section does not mean God has gone powerless and cannot save you. Let us just say he has chosen another way to save you. Jesus told Bartimaeus to receive his sight and to another man, Jesus had to resort to the fundamental principle on which man was formed – from the dust by spitting on the ground and making clay of the spittle. He then anointed the eyes of the blind man with clay and told him to go and wash in a pool before his sight was restored. A caesarean delivery might be scheduled by your doctor in advance of your due date or it may become necessary during labour because of an emergency.
Some other reasons such as prolonged labour, a breech baby, fetal distress, birth defects, repeated caesarean sections, chronic health conditions, cord prolapse or carrying multiples can be the causes of a caesarean delivery. Whatever the cause is, always listen to your doctors.
Pregnancy comes with many challenges, the joy of it all is to be alive with your baby after the nine months journey. So, if going through a CS is the only option left for you, please go for it. Women who have had their babies through caesarean section are stigmatised, they are seen as weaklings. I keep hearing people who have had their babies vaginally say, “It is a normal delivery.” Which one is abnormal? If you have had your baby through a caesarean section, you are a strong woman. Don’t let anyone think less of you. No matter what, you are still a “Hebrew woman.” Maybe campaigns can be taken to religious places to let them see things from the point of view that God did a surgery on man too because that is the place where the stiffest opposition to caesarean deliveries come from. We cannot keep losing women. All these deaths must stop.
On a lighter note, the video of a woman eating plantation peels went viral recently and many sent the video to me. They wanted my opinion on it. Yes, keep on eating the peels! While on the medicines in unlikely plant parts series, I discussed plantain peels and the fact that they are edible. I remember that in my discussion with the Head, Herbarium and Medicinal Plant Gardens, Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Mr Ife Ogunlowo, he said that ripe plantain peels is one of the constituents his wife uses for making a herbal soap that his family uses because it removes wrinkles and can lighten or tone the skin moderately without side effects. He said the unripe peels can be soaked or blended and taken to manage high blood pressure and diabetes. If you cannot eat it raw, you can cut it into tiny pieces, cook and add into all your recipes. You can also boil and drink the water.
I like the fact that the woman said it (eating of plantain peels) was passed on by her grandfather. This reminds one of how important indigenous or traditional knowledge of plants are.
I will not forget my tips on weight loss. If you choose walking as a form of exercise, you can get people to join you. It makes it more interesting. After each walk, the first thing I do when I get home is to take a cup of warm water with lime squeezed in it. I usually take it with a straw. A new series starts next week. It is going to be interesting.
The Punch
