-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 1
/
WhyMatrika.html
156 lines (136 loc) · 6.14 KB
/
WhyMatrika.html
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
---
layout: default
title: Why Matrika
---
<h1>Why MATRIKA? <i>(Early 2000)</i></h1>
<matrika:video clip="/Clips/Clip9_DoctorsInfo.video" width="384" height="288" />
<p>
<a href="/AboutUs.html">MATRIKA</a> is short for Motherhood and
Traditional Resources, Information, Knowledge and Action. It was a
3-year research project on traditional Indian midwifery in
collaboration with four NGOs in North India. We came together to
generate and analyze data gathered from workshops, role-plays,
interviews, folklore and songs.
</p>
<p>
Traditional methods are not being used today because of the widespread belief that obstetrical
(pharmaceutical, technological, surgical) methods are the best way to
make birth safe. The Government of India has a <a href="FAQ/PolicyMakers.html"> policy</a> of
institutionalized birth for all – although institutions providing quality care are not
available for the majority of Indian women.
</p>
<p>
Global health establishments (World Health Organization, Unicef, and bilateral
funding agencies) have accepted the emphasis on “skilled
attendance ” at birth – meaning bio-medically skilled (able to
read and write and use pharmaceuticals) not indigenously skilled.
</p>
<p>
<a href="/AboutUs.html">MATRIKA</a> departed from the
conventional Dai Training model. We asked the dais to train us in their
own ways of handling pregnancy, birth postpartum. The MATRIKA
perspective views women, specifically dais, as decision-makers within a
different cultural and socio-economic milieu. Birth traditions,
however, are not static and now unfortunately injections are replacing
rituals.
</p>
<div class="thumbnail">
<img class="center" src="/assets/images/matrika-methodology.jpg" width="480" height="319" class="Photo2" />
<div class="caption">
<i>Rajasthani dai, mother-in-law, new mother, courtesy Sameera Jain, Sublunar films and Matrika</i>
</div>
</div>
<div class="center" style="width: 540px;">
<h3>WHAT ARE MATRIKA’S PARADIGM SHIFTS?</h3>
<div class="well" style="background: #d6e0a8; color: #616130;">
<div class="center">
<h2>
<span style="color: #616130;">Biomedical to Cultural Paradigm</span>
</h2>
Our research method stepped out of the allopathic and public health
model of the female body and into the realm of indigenous cultural
understandings.<br /> <br />
<div class="left">
<i>Click over the image for the detailed view</i>
</div>
<br />
<img src="/assets/images/biomedical.gif" width="471" height="747" border="0" /><br />
<i>The allopathic anatomy of
the human body, made up of separate organs and systems, focusing on
the material elements.
</i>
<br /> <br />
<img src="/assets/images/biomedical2.gif" width="471" height="747" />
<br />
<i>The yogic, tantric and ayurvedic mapping of the body with a
focus on energy channels and systems</i>
<br />
</div>
</div>
<br /> <br />
<div class="well" style="background: #dcdb9c; color: #3F3F1F;">
<div class="center">
<h2>
<span style="color: #3F3F1F;">Training to Interactive
‘Conversation’ with Dais</span>
</h2>
We interacted with dais, asking them to share with us their own
ethno-medical knowledge. Skills sharing and capacity building efforts
of conventional dai training are often limited because the trainers
have little understanding of the cultural context-dais� mappings of
the body and rituals, beliefs and attitudes.<br /> <br /> <img
src="/assets/images/training-pic.jpg" width="446" height="312" /><br />
<i>Active Listening in Action. Rajasthani women are discussing
charts which MATRIKA created. These images were made based on the
previous workshop�the MATRIKA team was feeding back what we
understood they were saying, depicting their own ritual drawings and
body concepts. They had the opportunity to correct or add to our
impressions.</i><br />
</div>
</div>
<br /> <br />
<div class="well" style="background: #ced5bf; color: #3A3A3A;">
<div class="center">
<h2>
<span style="color: #3A3A3A;">Allopathic to Indigenous
Medical Therapeutics</span>
</h2>
MATRIKA has assembled a data base of therapies used by dais and other
traditionally oriented women.<br /> <br /> <img
src="/assets/images/biomedical3.jpg" width="396" height="500" /><br />
<i>Rishis learning ayurveda from their guru. Indigenous healing
involved situating a person in his/her natural and cosmic
environment and utilizing ritual, herbs, ways of living to promote
health through balance in the body.</i><br /> <br /> <img
src="/assets/images/medieval-european.gif" width="396" height="280" /><br />
<i>Important discoveries of allopathic medicine involved
dissection of cadavers and imaging of inner organs and systems.</i><br />
</div>
</div>
<br /> <br />
<div class="well" style="background: #d6ccc8; color: #675F5A;">
<div class="center">
<h2>
<span style="color: #675F5A;">Hierarchical to Collaborative
Knowledge Paradigm</span>
</h2>
Women’s reproductive health initiatives have often critiqued
top-down, hierarchical medical-delivery systems. In India culturally
appropriate, affordable and gender-sensitive perspectives can only be
implemented when health care providers and trainers have an
appreciation of existing local health knowledge and practice.
Assumptions that dais and women are ignorant about their bodies, and
superstitious in the rituals which surround pregnancy and birth, work
as barriers to effective and sustainable learning.<br /> <br /> <img
src="/assets/images/biomedical5.gif" width="459" height="418" /><br />
<i>Image of Lajja Gauri or Aditi Uttanpad. Factoring local and
civilizational cultures into health care provision is essential not
only to preserve indigenous cultures, but also to maintain a the
holistic (and holy) strengths of an abiding source of female power.</i><br />
<br /> <img src="/assets/images/commercial-girl.jpg" width="255"
height="357" /><br /> <i>Commercialization of woman’s
body occurs when we neglect the sacred aspects of our being, sex and
birth</i>
</div>
</div>
</div>