I am a documentary photographer who has worked for the UN and NGOs around the world for over 25 years. A few years ago I was approached by the International Confederation of Midwives in Holland to document the work of birth assistants in three countries – Canada, Peru and Trinidad. It was a crazy trip – fourteen days when I visited, with the help of local midwife’s organisations, maternity hospitals and hoped, that new children will be born just when I am there.
I met Edna Adan in Hargeisa years ago. She is an extremely hard-working lady. Trained as a midwife in England, she then spent most of her carrier with WHO (World Health Organisation). After retirement, she returned to Somaliland, by now independent from Somalia but to this day still not internationally recognised as an independent country. She sold all her possessions and with the proceeds built a huge hospital for mothers and babies in war-ravaged Hargeisa. The hospital is a teaching maternity hospital where Edna, with the help of her supporters around the world, both doctors and nurses, has trained hundreds of new midwifes and retrained TBAs – traditional birth assistants.
To be a mother in Somalia is not an easy task. Practically all girls are circumcised at some stage of their lives. They claim that circumcision is an Islamic tradition but there is no mention of it in the Koran and the “tradition” is so barbaric, that it leaves not only physical but also serious emotional scars. It creates serious problems at childbirth in a country where traditionally most birth occur at home – women give birth either on their own on or with a TBA present. The moment there is a complication, the TBA may not be able to help and often the child or the mother or both die.
Liba Taylor
EXHIBITION
Liba Taylor: Maternity
May 15 – June 14, 2013
Curator: Nadia Rovderova
Artinbox Gallery
Dum v Kisne, Perlova 3,
Prague 1- Old Town
Czech Republic
+420 777 748 433
+420 224 222 646
[email protected]
[email protected]
