Why hasn’t dai training worked to improve Maternal Mortality Rates?
The primary reasons poor women die having babies are because they are malnourished, overworked, live in degraded environments and are often victims of violence—not because they are having babies. Good medical referral systems, policy change directed towards these problems, and a respectful attitude towards dais and women seeking formal health care are the best approaches to reducing maternal mortality rates. Also dai training programs are dominated by a Western biomedical approach and dais are perceived as unskilled. The lack of understanding of and respect for indigenous birth knowledge by formal sector health care planners and personnel has prevented the development of culturally appropriate, sustainable and affordable training methodologies and cooperation between formal and informal health care providers. Ayurvedic knowledge has the capacity to ‘validate’ and provide an explanatory framework for dais’ understanding of female anatomy and physiology. The use of an Ayurvedic conceptua
