Melida Caicedo is  sixty-one years old, she greets me with a wide and sweet smile, she tells me that she was born in Sipí, a small town in Chocó. 

 

She has been a midwife for thirty-five years,   she gave birth to three of her nine children alone,   so she knew she could help other women. Although she does not know how to read or write, Melida is an expert midwife and recognized in her community, having successfully attended thirty births. With a sweet and simple tone, he relates his first experience: 

 

“The lady had about four children, she sent for me and I helped her. With  guascas* and kneeling, one hung from the guasca, she knelt down, I went forward. The child was coming, I took care of her, I fixed everything, I put her son in her bed and I, oh how happy! I'm so happy, I said, well, I'm already a midwife!” 

 

The emotion is reflected in her eyes when she shares the joy that invades her every time she sees a little person being born, about her practice as a midwife, she says:

 

“I go to the pregnant woman's house, I touch them, I rub them, I give them advice, I tell them what can be done, what can't, and that's how I advise them. And there, we are already gaining confidence. After they give birth, we look for herbs to give them to drink, so they can bathe. It is what one calls a “cure”. To drink, they take three  herbs, inotrope, acereda and another herb that I finally forgot the name of. To clean inside. They also give herbs to bathe, but today the youth do not like that, those who do like it, they do bathe with it.”

 

When he talks about ASOREDIPARCHOCÓ, a smile spreads across his face: “It is a great greatness to meet all those women, because one makes many friends, for me everything has been cool, beautiful.”

 

Her dream is to have a niche to attend births and have all the supplies that are required. She sadly relates that some families do not even have newborn clothes for their first day. As midwives and midwives, they manage and get them what they can. 

 

She would like the births they attend to be recognized: “I wish they would pay you, you attend these deliveries and many times they thank you and other times they don't even thank you. In any case, it is one's obligation, it is the obligation to save a life.” 

 

Melida is an expert midwife, she has been dedicated to this profession for thirty-five years,  although most of the time there is no financial recognition for her work, she always cares for the women who come to her, she feels which is your commitment. She is one of the many women who represents the values of traditional midwifery that ASOREDIPARCHOCÓ defends in her daily work, seeking to make visible the importance of midwives as community health agents. 

 

*The guasca is a rope used for rural work, but it is also widely used by indigenous women to support themselves during labor.