by Ejidiah Wangui
NAIROBI, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- At exactly 3:30 a.m. on a Tuesday last November, Trisa Ipese's daughter let out her first cry.
Ipese had just given birth to her first child at home in Elelea, a remote village in Turkana county in northwestern Kenya.
Ipese's joy soon turned into tears when her daughter died two hours into her young life.
The life of Ipese was also in danger as she started bleeding but a good Samaritan appeared at the right time and rushed her to hospital.
Ipese, 22, now carrying her second baby, is confident that this time things will be different, as she plans to move in with her auntie who lives near Lodwar County Referral Hospital in northern Kenya, where she plans to deliver.
"It was hard coming into terms with losing my first baby," Ipese told Xinhua on Tuesday. "In my village all the women deliver at homes with the help of traditional midwives."
"There are so many other women who have lost babies after delivery while some even die during the process," she said.
A first time mother then, Ipese didn't know of any other option other than following into her older sisters' footsteps -- they all deliver at home. Even her own mother delivered all her eleven children under similar circumstances.
In Turkana, giving birth at home is normal and over the centuries, community midwives have passed the craft of midwifery from generation to generation.
According to Ipese's 76-year-old mother, giving birth in hospital is still considered a sign of weakness in Turkana, and for women, this is a sure way of losing respect among their peers. Few want to risk their place in the community.
But having put her life on the line and losing a baby, Ipese would rather lose the respect but save her life as well as that of her baby.
"Things have changed a bit now, but the stigma for those who opt to deliver in hospital is still there as they are dismissed as cowards," she said. "There is also the belief that when you deliver in hospital you expose yourself to strangers who are not supposed to see your nakedness."
Speaking to Xinhua, Miriam Momanyi, a senior midwife at Lodwar County Referral Hospital, said much as the journey to getting more women in Turkana deliver in hospital is gaining traction, there are still millions of miles to cover as many women still prefer a community midwife to one in a hospital facility.
To change this perception and to encourage more women to deliver in a safer environment, Momanyi said, the hospital has started using a traditional birth stool which is meant to make mothers feel more comfortable.
"Research shows that most Turkana women like giving birth squatting, so most will prefer a traditional midwife who better understands their needs," she said.
"In hospitals, you have to lie on your back to push -- something they are not used to. With the birth stool, we have been able to convince more mothers to deliver here even though we are still far from getting the numbers we want," Momanyi said.
So far, over 50 women have delivered in Lodwar County Referral Hospital, since the birth stool was introduced a few years ago.
Momanyi hopes the hospital will get more stools as currently there is only one which can be a challenge at times.
"Sometimes we get two mothers delivering at the same time, so it becomes tricky for us but we hope to get more stools soon," noted Momanyi.
In Turkana County, about 40 percent of women deliver at home and sometimes even without the help of a traditional birth attendant.
Momanyi hopes the stool will help in rewriting some of the beliefs associated with giving birth in hospital in the region.
