孟加拉国-贫民区里的产妇Life: Born in a Slum

Sajila is a working mother living in the Korail slum in Dhaka city. She got her husband, mother-in-law and three children (two daughters and a son) in her family. As her husband cannot afford all the m
aintenance of the family alone, Sajila works as a day labourer to support him. I began my photo shoot on Sajila when she was four-month pregnant. She lives in a small, suffocating and unhealthy room in the Korail slum. As it is in most of the slums, there is also no doctor or medical service available here in this slum. There are indeed some midwives helping the pregnant mothers in the slum though. But their ability is very much questionable and giving birth to a child under their supervision is unsafe, it even leads the mothers and children to death often. Death-rate at the pregnancy period in Bangladesh is 440 among every 100000; highest in the world. Death rate at child birth is even higher. Since 2007, the rate is 151(either child or the mother) in every thousand. As for the children, the number is 61 per thousand. The reason behind this high death-rate is most of the child-birth in our country is maintained by untrained midwives. Due to economical insolvency and lack of proper medical service, Sajila also decides to give birth to her child under the supervision of a midwife. All her three children have been born this way. Her economical condition was even worse during her pregnancy and she even had to starve for several days. Even though, Sajila did not forget to take advice from the midwife about the dos and don’ts. Finally on the due date, she gives birth to her child under the guidance of that very midwife. Without any modern facilities or medicines, in an unhealthy atmosphere, Sajila have her baby boy delivered normally. It might sound incredible to many, but Sajila walks herself to home with her son only after an hour.

萨吉娜是生活在孟加拉国首都达卡考瑞尔贫民区的一个职业妇女。她的家庭成员有她的丈夫、婆婆和3个儿女（2女1男）。当她的丈夫不能再供养起这个家族时，萨吉娜开始做临时工来贴补家用。我是在萨吉娜四个月身孕的时候开始记录拍摄的。她生活在贫民区一间很狭小、憋闷而且很不卫生的房子里。因为绝大多数的贫民区是没有医生或其他医疗服务的，所以就有一些产婆来帮助孕妇接生。但是她们的能力令人怀疑，在她们的监护下接生是非常危险的，经常会导致母亲和新生儿双双毙命。在孟加拉国，孕期死亡率是440：100000，全世界最高。新生儿死亡率更高，自从2007年以来，新生儿和产妇的死亡率是151：1000，光就新生儿来说，是61：1000.这种高死亡率的背后直接原因就是由于没有专业培训的产婆接生造成的。由于经济能力有限，缺乏相应的医疗服务，萨吉娜依然决定由产婆来接生。她的三个孩子都是这样生下来的。她家的经济状况在她怀孕期间变的更糟糕，她甚至到了食不果腹的地步。尽管如此，她仍然没有忘记提醒产婆一些注意事项。在生产的那天，她就是由这位产婆接生的。在没有任何现代化的医疗器械和药物辅助下，在一个非常不卫生的环境中，萨吉娜顺利的产下一名男婴。对于许多人来说，听上去难以置信，但是萨吉娜在生产完仅一个小时后，就自己抱着孩子走着回到家中。