It is a real joy to take care of most of them. In a way, the women are like atheletes because they walk tens of miles every day, carrying heavy loads on their heads and a baby on their backs. They are very sturdy individuals, without an ounce of fat on them usually. The morning after a cesarean section or a hysterectomy, they have usually gotten up out of bed and taken a shower before I even get to the hospital. For some this is the first time they have slept in a bed raised off the floor, and the first time they have had a shower.
Most people live in huts with earthen floors and an outhouse in the back.
They go to the river or stream for their water. Most doctors today would not think of pregnancy as a potential threat to life. Out here where normal obstetrical services are not readily available, the maternal mortality rate is over 400 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. In the United States and other developed countries, it is 10. Some of the interventions necessary to save a life of a woman are no more complicated than knowing how to extract a placenta, do a cesarien section, or type and crossmatch blood.