On the side are photos taken at one of the two meetings we held in the villages served by the Kodai area creches. One of the Betsy Elizabeth Trust board members, the creche manager and the creche nurse arranged these get togethers with creche parents and any other interested women. We met on a Sunday morning for about an hour. It was difficult to find a time when these women were free. They work six days a week collecting firewood, carrying rocks for masonry, collecting eucalyptus leaves for oil and working at other unskilled, low-paying jobs. Sundays are busy with religious observances and trips to the big open air market in Kodai. Over tea and biscuits we talked about their childbirth experiences, if and where they had received prenatal care, where they had delivered (home, hospital, clinic), how complications were handled, family planning methods, experiences with deaths of mothers and babies, and finally what they identified as needs with which I might assist.
Many requested treatment for various ailments or a few paracetamol (acetaminophen) for aches and pains. Unfortunately I could not respond to these requests but the women did come up with some topics to address in future meetings around women's health issues.
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