We highlight two videos from the ‘Parir Con Dignidad’ project on traditional Indigenous midwifery. The first video is called ‘The wise women who heal’ (6:47 mins): Being a midwife is a gift, a gift from our ancestors. The Indigenous Women’s House in the Ikoots community of San Mateo del Mar, Oaxaca, Mexico, has 11 very active midwives. They are Ikoods Mondüy Moniün Andeow, “the wise women who heal”. The members of this collective share with us their commitment to attend and care for pregnant women and help them to deliver their babies, even though medical personnel who work in clinics and hospitals do not believe they have the capacity to attend births. During the pandemic they attended many more women, since the institutional healthcare system collapsed, and women were afraid to go to hospitals. The second video is called ‘The Indigenous midwifery movement’ (5:50 mins): Midwifery is not just a practice. It becomes a movement to ensure that government policies that put obstacles in the way of traditional midwifery do not continue. In Chiapas, Mexico, the Nich Ixim Midwives Movement is made up of 650 indigenous, mestizo, rural and some urban midwives from 34 municipalities, attending births and defending the right to give birth with dignity. Since 2012 the Nich Ixim Midwives Movement has come together to defend and promote traditional midwifery. It is an autonomous movement, not associated with political parties or governments, open to working with midwives who fight for their rights and for women to have access to good care during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum. During the year 2020, during the pandemic, midwives in Chiapas attended almost 50% of registered births, at a time when the demand for their care increased dramatically.

Click on the picture below to start watching the videos in Spanish.