Yaya as a Garifuna Midwife and Massage Therapist Part 2

Chapter Two: Yaya as a Midwife and Massage Therapist

 

By Wendy Griffin

 

When she was approximately 15 years old, Yaya dreamed of two people—an English speaking doctor and a black woman.  The gringo doctor explained to her in English how to be a midwife.  Clara said to him, “I do not understand gringo yet.”  The black woman translated what the doctor said.  Since that dream she is a midwife.  At 91 years old people still looked for her to be a midwife.

 

She still remembers the first time she acted as a midwife.  Someone told her, “Your cousin is sick.”  She went to see her.  The husband of the cousin had gone to the neighborhood of Rio Negro to look for the midwife there.  Clara examined her cousin.  She was bleeding.  Then her water broke.  The placenta came with the baby.  She cleaned the baby and put clothes on her.  Then the husband arrived with the midwife.  She was a black English speaker.  Clara told him what he had to do is pay the woman for her walk and that is what he did.

 

She has worked with difficult and ugly births.  For example a woman who was pregnant felt something.  It was the hand of the baby.  Clara was able to get the baby out and the Mama lived.  Clara put oil of almonds along the birth canal and on the baby.  She told the mother when to push.  She blew smoke her in the face.

 

Another time the woman felt birth pangs. Clara felt the foot of the baby.  She pinched the foot hard and the baby pulled the leg in again.  Then Clara was able to massage the mother until the baby was in a better position. It came without a problem.  The Mama asked, “Why didn't you tell me that the baby came foot first?” “ I did not want you to worry,” Clara said.  “God helps me.”  Before there were no diapers, they just tore cloth from an old dress of the Mama and dressed the baby in that.

 

Three times she has had to be the midwife for a birth of a baby with the umbilical cord around its neck.  She put almond oil on her hand and put her hand in and moved the umbilical cord so that the baby could slide down without any problems.  All these babies are big now.

 

She has never failed in a birth, but once there was a pregnant woman.  She had birth pangs.  The baby went in and out.  Clara gave her rue to chew and a lot of water.  The baby came.  It was a boy.  But the afterbirth did not come down.

 

She gave her the plant San Antonio.  She said, “I am going to die. Clara asked, “Do you have a hammock?  Put her in a hammock and take her to the doctor's clinic.” There was no hospital.  The Truxillo Railroad Company had left, closing the hospital in Castilla.  They took her to the dispensary.  The doctor changed gloves 7 times trying to get the afterbirth to come down.  The woman died in the doctor's clinic.

 

This death had been dreamed of in this house.  The father said, “I do not blame you.  You know your work.  They took her to the clinic with enough time.”  She did not charge them.

 

The woman who died had taken some money of a Mr. Griffis of Guanaja. She and her husband took the money.  She bought flour and made a lot of coconut bread.  The man whose money they took paid someone to kill her and her husband by witchcraft.  The son still lives.  While they were preparing the wake of this woman, Yaya was called to be a midwife at another birth.  The woman already had the birth pangs.  The people commented Yaya was brave (tiene valor) to attend another birth after this one died.  This birth went fine.

 

Clara knows techniques to get the afterbirth to come down. If the afterbirth does not come down, she put her hand down hard to the Mama's head.  The afterbirths falls.  Also she gives the patient a bottle and tells her to breathe in it.  Or she breathes strongly into the mouth of the mother.

 

The most famous person that she been a midwife for is the actual president of Honduras Porfirio (Pepe) Lobo.  When he was about to be born, his parents lived in a Garifuna neighborhood of Trujillo, Rio Negro, where they raised pigs.  Twice a week they slaughtered pigs and sold the meat.  Yaya  was with the mother of the President of Honduras during the first part of the birth, but then her cousin who was also a midwife came, and she finished birthing the child.  Until today, the President of Honduras says, “A Black woman cut my umbilical cord.”.  

 

The care of the pregnant mother begins months before the birth.  Clara knows how to massage pregnant women and she taught this to her daughter Mantua.  The women come so that she can check them out.  Sometimes she said to them,” You are not pregnant.  What you have is a tumor.  Go to the hospital.” The tumor can be treated if it is small.  Put three drops of criolina in water every day.  Do not put in more than 3 drops.  The tumor will come with the menstruation.

 

Clara can identify if the baby is a boy or a girl.  Touching the Mama, the baby moves, floating towards the back if it is a girl.  A boy does not move.  The boy tries to settle down below the rib.  The girl does not.

 

There are women who could not have children.  Their husband was on the point of leaving them because they could not have children.  Here is the remedy.

 

Buy honey from bees, “guaro” (sugar cane liquor), pericon, anise, camomile and allspice.  One part of the vegetables cook well in a pot.  The other part does not get cooked.  Cut up the part that is raw.  Put it in a plastic container. Add the honey and guaro.  Drink it every day.

 

She gave this recipe to a woman.  At the end of one year, she returned to say, “Here is your granddaughter.”

 

After giving birth the woman is bleeding.  She should wash with lemon leaf and the leaf of bitter orange and warm water.  If she does not do this while she is bleeding, she will get a tumor.

 

When they built the hospital in Trujillo, they invited the midwifes to a short course (cursillo).  She went to the cursillo and explained to the doctors what they did for a successful birth.  The midwives checked the pregnant woman at the hospital.

 

Even after the construction of the hospital, the women still looked for Clara to be the midwife for them.  A woman went to the hospital.  She had birth pangs for three days.  In the hospital they told her, “This is going to be a difficult birth.  You should go to La Ceiba.”  The doctors and nurses went to La Ceiba.  They should have taken her with them, but they did not.  The woman did not go.  She looked for Clara.  It was a difficult birth, feet first.  Clara called on God.  This is his work.  The woman gave birth without greater problems.

 

When Clara went to live in la Ceiba, this woman followed her.  Clara said to her, “Here are two hospitals.  You can go to the hospital.”  “Not even if God wants it. I want you to be my midwife.” answered the woman. She was with Clara for three days. She put on a special belt and went to Trujillo with the baby.  Clara was her midwife for three births—two girls and a boy.

She plants San Antonio.  You pull it out with the whole root.  This gets the afterbirth to come down.  Yaya tells them to use a laxative before they are going to give birth like Laxsol.  It is sweet.  They drink half, not the whole thing.  She prefers to take out the baby without gloves.  She cuts her nails.  She uses a special brush to clean her fingernails.

 

Once when she lived in La Ceiba a woman stopped her and asked if she knew a woman who lived around here named Clara.  She said, “No, I do not know her.  I am recently arrived in La Ceiba myself.”  The woman insisted.  “Don't you know a woman who lives around here, named Clara?” Finally Clara said, “I am she.”   The woman was pregnant.  She stayed with Yaya and had the baby.  The next day she said, “I am going out.  I will be right back.”  But at 10, 11 o'clock she did not come back.  She left the baby with Yaya. Clara was going to raise the baby as her own.  Another woman said she heard that a woman left a baby with her, and said Clara should give her the baby.  But no, Clara was going to raise the child.  After a long time, the woman came back.  She said she wanted the baby back.  Clara gave it to her, because it was hers.  She had a husband in Boston, but she had this baby with another man.  The husband forgave her and that is why she went to pick up the baby.

 

Clara has been a midwife for twins.  Sometimes there is one placenta, sometimes two.  One woman had twins.  First one came and then the pains stopped for several hours.  Yaya fixed up the first baby. Afterward the pains started again and she had the other baby.

 

You have to be careful with twins.  If one dies, it is easy that the other one dies also.  The first one calls it.

 

Sometimes the baby drinks the dirty water when the water breaks.  She gives the baby garlic well cooked, and rue and honey in the mouth so that it vomits all the dirty water.  This baby will not have asthma, nor bronchitis.  Some children just have a cold followed by another cold, etc.  This is because they drank the dirty water.  None of the kids she has midwifed for have asthma.

 

If the baby is born with the placenta still intact, she cuts it with scissors and dries the baby.  This is a mystery.  The baby inside the mother does not drown, but if you leave it 5 minutes with the water still around it outside the mother, it will drown.

 

Once a woman went to the hospital.  For two days she was in the hospital with labor pains and the baby did not come, so they sent her home.  Yaya massaged her.  Then she had a pain.  Then again.  She bled a little.  Then the pains came one after another. Yaya touched the baby.  It was close. Yaya told her to push.  The baby came out and the grandmother said, “My little girl had her baby.” It was a girl.  Yaya cleaned up the baby.  She fixed the umbilical cord.  She gave her raw sugar cane (rapadura).  This gets all the coagulated blood out.  She was with Yaya for two days. Before she  charged only a little money.  Now she charges L500 ($25) for being the midwife at a birth.

 

Once when Doctor Pablito, a Garifuna doctor, was recently arrived, Yaya did a birth feet first.  “God helped me”, she said. The doctors and nurses went to La Ceiba.  Yaya massaged the mother.  The two feet came out.  She felt the head.  She put almond oil on her hands. She told her to push.  Doctor Pablo said to her, “You are brave.”  Yaya said, “If I am not brave I am going to fail.” She cleaned her up. She put the belt on the baby and a little dress.  The placenta came with the baby.  Yaya buries the placenta in a secret place. 

 

Sometimes Yaya recommends that a woman have a baby in the hospital.  Once when she was working as a buyei in a ceremony, a chugu or banquet for the ancestors that lasts all day, they called her to attend a birth. The woman was already in labor.  The woman was going to have twins.  She had very narrow hips.  First they took her to the hospital in Trujillo and they referred her to the hospital in La Ceiba.  They operated on her in La Ceiba at 6 am and she was there in the hospital for a week. Yaya came back with her.  When she became pregnant again she had by Cesarian again.

 

Recommendations on the Care of Pregnant Women

 

At the beginning, in the first three months, the woman should not be massaged.  The fetus is delicate.  When a woman is pregnant she should eat well, drink a lot milk, eat cooked eggs and oatmeal.  There are cases when the mother gives birth, the baby lives, but the mother dies.  The mother had anemia.  Yaya tells them, “Go to the doctor.” when they are pregnant.  They should take vitamins to avoid being anemic.  They can also take caña santa with raw cane sugar for anemia. They  should peel and mash up the Caña Santa and leave it in water with raw  cane sugar (rapadura) for three days.  Then drink this medicine every day.

 

There are women who when they are pregnant all types of food bother them.  When a woman has a lot of nausea, she could drink lemonade with sugar and ice.  With this, the nausea and the need to spit end.

 

There are women who have pain even though they are pregnant.  What they have is cold in the womb.  Cook camomile, allspice and anise. Drink this.  That is the end of the pain and the cold.  The cause of cold in the womb is bathing all the time when they are menstruating.

 

A boy at 42 days of being pregnant, you can feel it, like a little snake.  They  climb up over the stomach of the Mama.

 

At 3, 4, 5, months the woman can be massaged.  At five months the baby turns over.

 

During the first six months the woman should not drink cinnamon bark tea.  This can cause an abortion.

 

At seven months the baby has its head down.  The baby does not move until 7 months if it is a girl.  The mother should sleep on both sides.  The baby will give the mother pain if she just sleeps on one side.

 

The month when the baby is due, boil a lot of cinnamon, oregano and ginger.  Wash these and pound them.  Drink this every day the month the baby is due.  The baby will come out quickly.

 

The week the baby is due, the midwife checks the baby to see if everything is OK.  She knows if it is necessary to have a Cesarian or if the baby is going to born feet first.

 

When the baby is ready to come down, she puts almond oil on the woman so that the baby can come down easily.  The midwife says prayers to God while the woman is having her pains.

 

When the baby is born, she ties the umbilical cord.  She cuts the umbilical cord.  She puts gauze, alcohol and a cloth belt.  If the head came out a little disfigured, she massages it.  She cuts a stocking, and puts it on the baby so that the head will be OK.  She cleans the baby with oil or alcohol.  She puts a diaper on the baby, some clothes and puts it down to sleep.

 

When the birth is difficult to get the placenta to come down, she makes tea of San Antonio.  She lets it get cold and adds sugar.  This causes the placenta to come down. Some people use camomile, allspice and cloves to wash the womb of the mother and to wash the umbilical cord.  Yaya puts almond oil on the mother.  After she has given birth, it is necessary to close the woman at three days.  The midwife does a massage and puts a broad cloth belt on the new mother.  The mother drinks camomile, rosemary, anise and allspice to clean out the womb.

 

For pain after birth, eat raw cane sugar (rapadura).  This causes all that is causing the pain to come out.  For hemorrhaging after birth, Yaya uses strong coffee.  After the birth, she gives the mother an antibiotic like sufatacina.

 

If the mother was scratched by the baby on its way out, boil leaves of piñon and the milk from this plant.  Wash the mother with this.  In three days she is as good as if she had had stitches.  Also wash with castor oil.

 

During the pregnancy generally the mother takes nothing to purge herself.  A month after giving birth, take three oils—castor oil, almond oil, and eating oil to clean out her system.

 

When the woman is bleeding, she should avoid hot air from above and from below from the feet.  For example, she can not make cassava bread with firewood on the ground and an iron griddle above this, because a lot of hot air would enter from below..

 

When it is time to nurse the baby, wash the breasts with water, not with soap.  The mother should try the milk.  If the milk is salty, it is no good.  Culantro should be boiled with bitter orange.  Drink this.  The milk is washed and comes out sweet.  Drink this also if the milk does not come.

 

To a baby the midwife also does massages.  At three days old the baby turns over.

 

There are umbilical cords that do not fall off at 9, 10 days.  They are thick.  Sometimes as long as 15 days, they fall off dry.  She puts alcohol on the umbilical cord.  Before, there was no alcohol.  They used to use Mentholatum and iodine.

 

Illnesses that Require a Healer/Massage Therapist

 

In her dream on how to be a midwife Yaya also learned how to massage to cure illnesses that affect young children.  For these illnesses a mother should not go to a doctor as they are not recognized by doctors.

 

Puho-If the father does heavy work, if the father is outside with another woman, the umbilical cord begins to bleed again.  If a pregnant woman passes by the baby, it can become sick.  To avoid this, the woman should make the sign of the cross with her saliva.  If the baby is sick, put around it the sweaty shirt of the father and on the bellybutton.  Heat up a Guarumo leaf or tobacco and put this on the bellybutton.

 

A child Affected by the Evil Eye-- This is caused by being seen by a person whose vision is strong and brings illness to the baby.  It can not go to bathroom and can not pee.  Burn leaves of chile chiltepe, and a cigar on hot coals from a fire.  Pass the child in the form of the cross through the smoke.  Turn over the baby.  Pass it again in the form of a cross.  Massage its body with dampened tobacco.

 

Empacho-The symptoms of empacho are the baby defecates a lot.  He will not nurse.  The tongue makes a sound.  His little tummy is inflated and it sounds like a drum when you hit it.  Massage the baby going down all over, the arms.  Put a little salt and a little sugar in water, sweeter rather than saltier.  Drink this.  Pass the salt over the stomach also.  If it has diarrhea with green mucus, give it the antibiotic sufatacina.

 

If the mother eats avocado, pigs’ feet, cabbage, this gives the baby diarrhea with mucus.  If the baby has diarrhea with green mucus, Yaya massages it and gives it the antibiotioc sufatacina. There are young mothers who are not careful.  They give heavy foods like machuca (mashed cooked green and ripe plantains) to little babies, like 15 days or 2 months old. This gives them “empacho”.  She massages them.

 

Hundida de la Mollera (The sunken Soft Spot)- Touch the soft spot on the baby's head.  You can feel that it has sunken.  Massage the baby carefully. She puts water on the baby’s head,   and the healer puts her lips around the soft spot and hauls it up.  She lays the baby on its stomach and touches its feet.  If the case is serious, mix wheat flour with the yolk of an egg. Put this on a plate.  Put this mixture on a rag or a piece of paper.  Put it on the soft spot.  It will not fall off until the baby is healed, even if you bathe the child every day.

 

Paletillas-There is a bone at the end of the breast bone.  It sinks.  The healer has to raise it up. It is necessary to massage the child. There was a child who went to the hospital.  They could not find anything wrong with him.  Yaya discovered that he had paletilla.  She gave him camomile, allspice, nutmeg, and pericon which he drank every day.  He got well.

 

Empacho and Paletillas also affect adults.  Clara also gives treatment of massages and medicinal plants to adults.  Many patients with AIDS also have a cough and feel bad.  Several Garifuna NGO’s like Enlace de Mujeres Negras, have given training to buyeis on how to recognize the symptoms of AIDS, because people with AIDS often go to buyei before going to a medical doctor, thinking they have paletillas or “guibida” problems.

 

The Ladinos and the Pech also believe in these illnesses which are treated by massage and similar ones like haito of water and haito of milk which Yaya also cures.  Many of the patients of Yaya as a massage therapist, healer, and midwife are Ladinos (mestizos and mulattos who speak Spanish), who she calls indios.

 

Adults suffer from other illnesses that need massages.  “Aire”, dislocations, paralysis, recovering from falls, being hit, and broken bones are some of the illnesses that people seek a massage therapist (sobadora)  for.  “Aire” is not gas in the stomach, but rather a pain that affects the person in different parts of the body like the back.

 

In Cristales, there used to be a man who worked for the Standard Fruit Company (now Dole), a banana company based in la Ceiba, Honduras.  He became paralyzed.  Standard Fruit paid for him to be in medical treatment with doctors for three years.  He did not get better.  Yaya did massages for him during one year.  At the end of the year, he could walk again.

 

An Example of a visit with Doña Clara

 

One day I went to visit Clara.  She was with a patient that was 15 days old.  The baby had puho.  It cried.  It tried to push as if for a bowel movement, but nothing.  It would not nurse.  She massaged the baby with sugar cane alcohol (guaro) and tobacco.  She gave the mother dried leaves of chile chiletepe.  She advised the mother to burn the leaves with the rest of the cigar in a pot that she no longer used.  She should pass that baby mouth up and then mouth down in the form of a cross through the smoke.  This was in case the puho was caused by a person with strong vision.

 

The baby also had yellow eyes.  She gave the mother pieces of caña  santa.  She told her to peel it and the center part mix with raw cane sugar (rapadura).  Leave this two days to ferment.  Give this medicine to the baby until it no longer had yellow eyes.  This is the recipe for hepatitis and other liver problems like jaundice.

 

After half an hour the baby ate again and slept and no long made the movements of puho.

 

Clara said that if the umbilical cord bled, take the leaf of guarumo, heat it up and put it on the bellybutton.  The mother was curing the bellybutton with chicken lard and iodine.  Clara said iodine burned.

 

Clara also advised the mother to wrap the baby in a shirt sweaty from the work of his father when he came home from cutting grass with a machete.  Maybe the baby got sick because his father was doing a lot of  work.  She told us about another baby who got sick because the father was puling up yuca or manioc.

 

Children are delicate says Clara.  You have to bring them to be cured on time.  There was a mother.  The baby bled from the belly button. This began in the morning.  She did not bring the baby to Clara until late afternoon.  The baby died.

 

Another time a girl nine years old got sick.  The mother said, Tomorrow and tomorrow we will take her to see Yaya.  Various days passed like this.  Finally they brought the girl to see Yaya, but she was with another patient.  They said,  Now we are going to go.  But they waited.  When she was done with the first patient Yaya checked the girl.  She said take her to your house and lay her out.  She died there in the living room of Yaya because her parents did not bring her on time.