María Luisa Mosquera Perea is sixty-three years old, she smiles shyly, but her expression expands with pride when talking about her mother: María Paulina Perea de Mosquera, it was she who taught her to part.

 

Her first birth was in Medellin, her mother had not taught her yet, but the woman was alone and had no choice but to attend. He learned by watching his mother, so he began to recognize which herbs to use, how to cut the navel and how to insert the wedge. 

 

About her practice as a midwife she reports: “I had five births alone, by myself. I have 38 births, I have them in my head, all babies were born alive. Only one was born with a problem in the head, they took him and the girl to Quibdó.” 

 

When pain or signs of risk appear, she instructs women to go to the doctor.  She knows how to apply baths, vapors with mountain herbs, seeds, rosemary and pepper, as well as preparations:

 

“They also make bottles of syrup for them to break up the trunks and clean everything, I make those bottles of syrup, the powder, the jaguatodio, that since a lady gave birth I do everything for her. The powder is to cure the navel and cure for the mother.”

 

What I like the most is to cut the navel, he feels that he has a good hand to do it. He expresses that the most complicated thing to part with is learning to insert the wedge, after this is done there is no problem, he explains that it is a piece of cloth that is placed backwards and forwards, pointing to the perineum area.

 

About ASOREDIPARCHOCÓ expresses:“it works, it goes forward, it's good because we meet, we train. One has the hope or the courage to be paid, because many times one does not even have enough for the tickets. Or the family of the pregnant woman has no way of paying one.” 

 

In the absence of the health system, midwives are the ones who provide assistance and save hundreds of lives in their territories. There is no vision of health as a right that must be guaranteed by the State, supporting midwives as providers and pregnant women as beneficiaries.  The favorable ruling of the constitutional court, before the tutela action filed jointly with Ilex, ASOREDIPARCHOCÓ and ASOPARUPA, demands their integration into the health system and economic recognition. This fight continues, fueled by the hope of being fully supported and recognized for the work carried out in their communities.