Aleida laughs with her eyes, she is a strong and fighting woman, friendly and with very bright eyes, like any midwife she loves to joke and tell stories. When she talks about midwifery, her pride is evident, knowing that she is the heir and guardian of a family tradition. 

 

All the women in her family are midwives, even her 4-year-old granddaughter Yasmary calls herself a midwife.“midwife”. Aleida Mosquera is fifty-four years old and has been leaving since she was fourteen, she was born in Condoto, she was initiated by her mother and grandmother, she has eight daughters. About her work as a midwife, she recounts:

“I work with medicinal plants, I make balsamic. When the women are about to give birth, I cook the broom and give it two teaspoons of sugar.  When the baby comes out I take the nasedera and other plants and give them. If the baby is born with a lot of phlegm, I usually take the viche in my mouth for about two minutes and blow it, blow it with that and spread it on the little mouth so that all that phlegm can go away.”

 

She doesn't keep an exact count of how many births she has attended, but she thinks it must be around fifty by now. He expresses that the most beautiful thing is when everything goes well, when the mother and her child are well, he relies heavily on faith:

 

“Whenever I am going to do that work, first God, I ask God, see if you see that I cannot do it, make me invisible, if you see that I can do it, make me visible. God has supported me, a child never died on me.  In this one I have life and here I have death-pointing to his hands-, but I pray to God that it doesn't happen, that it be life. ”

 

Since 2011 she has been an associate of ASOREDIPARCHOCÓ, she expresses the importance of the network because there they have been able to train and acquire tools to have safer deliveries. Would like greater recognition of the work and strengthening of the network:“We need to expand more, unite more and make an effort at the international level so that traditional midwives have a payment. I would also like them to teach us and give us how to do an ultrasound, because that is expensive.” 

 

In their region they have had difficulties to legalize, due to the costs that this entails, their wish is to have more resources to continue defending and practicing traditional midwifery.