Traditional midwifery at risk of extinction

Mpopi Moche (83) is a popular traditional midwife in Moshupa recognised mostly for her outspoken defense of the profession she says is 'in danger of extinction'.

Birth after birth, Moche has witnessed women go through the hugely empowering, transformative, life-changing event that is childbirth. But she is one of a dying breed of traditional midwives in modern times.

“We have been replaced by a medical model that treats birth as an illness. Birth is an act of love, not one of fear,” she quips. Moche who boasts of conducting successful home deliveries for many expectant women including her daughter’s seven children says, “The women I take care of are usually   afraid of the impersonal environment at hospitals. People no longer understand that our bodies are as well designed as the other 5, 000 mammals that give birth to live, healthy offspring,” Moche continues, “I teach people to search out the chimpanzee that lives within you. Forget about what people say about childbirth. If a chimpanzee can do it, so can you, without a knife or drugs!”

She advocates and uses minimal intervention and special maneuvers to work with the most difficult births. The use of diets, plants, various infusions, immersion baths, sweat baths, incense and massages integrate her knowledge, which she has passed on to her daughter.

Her gift as a midwife and her intuition, which she says is from the ancestors, help create an intimate, unique relationship with each mother and infant under her care. It is this decline in one-on-one care for women before, during and after labour that she says has had a number of profound implications including a rising number of interventions in birth, an increase in caesarian sections and declining rates of breastfeeding.“We are completely lost. We have even forgotten to raise the simplest questions. What are the basic needs of women in labour? The best thing to do is to go back to square one - the point of departure.” That point according to Moche is the realisation that childbirth is an act of love - literally. 

“A mother releases a complex cocktail of love hormones, natural morphine when a baby is being born. Women, like all other mammals, are supposed to release this as soon as the baby is born. Today, most women give birth without releasing these hormones” Above all, Moche believes that what a woman really needs in labour is confidence and support, a role midwives have filled throughout history.“We have been doing this forever, guiding women towards this intangible essence of bliss. When labour's love is lost, we are left with fear. The cost of medicalised birth is more than we should be asked to bear,” she concluded.