Aug 5, 2025
THE WOMEN I MET IN JCMB
It has been 2 months here in JCMB (Jan Chetna Manch Bokaro) with a noiseless labor room and peaceful deliveries. I remember the day of Holi evening, a 20-year-old lady came with labour pains. Her colored hands reminded me of the Holi celebrations she had in her home. She was so talkative even during labour. During the gap between uterine contractions, when the pain was less, she explained about the celebrations she had and about her husband, who refused to go to the hospital when the pain started, because they would miss all the fun. Later, when the pain got intense, she arranged for some relatives to get to the hospital and came. Nurses and birth attendants were not in a hurry. They listened to her talk and patiently helped during labour. She delivered a healthy baby afterwards. The calmness and patience of the health workers here during labour always amazed me.
Taking care of women’s health, particularly during pregnancy, delivery, and the postnatal period, is what we do in JCMB. Yeah, that’s obstetrics. But when the woman’s health is not only the essence of her own choices in a place where, often, she doesn’t even have the right to make choices and is bound to live by the choices made by others, there comes social obstetrics. Women’s health has many social factors associated with it. A girl’s education will be compromised first, rather than that of a boy in the same family, during hard times in a rural household. Investing in a girl’s education is considered worthless because she is not going to / supposed to earn for the family according to society. This results in early marriages of the girls pushing them into more social responsibilities at a young age. Thus, she is also made dependent on her husband and in-laws in her remaining life, even for coming to the hospital for check-ups. Women here are weakly represented in working sectors other than agricultural work. Most of them are in the houses, looking after children and household chores. The responsibility of having babies and extending the lineage often falls on women. That puts huge pressure on them, particularly if they fail to get pregnant soon after marriage.
There was one lady who came to OPD with 3 months of missed periods and told us that she was pregnant. Her abdomen was also looking bigger. However, the urine pregnancy test was negative, there was no fetal heart sound on the abdominal examination, and her uterus was a normal size. We explained to her that she was not pregnant. But she was so sure of her pregnancy that she was able to appreciate fetal movements! We got a scan done to prove that she wasn’t pregnant. She was gaining weight, particularly around her abdomen, probably due to her polycystic ovarian disorder. That was the reason for her irregular periods, too. So, we tried to give her diet and exercise advice for getting hormonal balance. But she refused to do the exercises because it would badly affect her imaginary baby inside her womb. She was planning to wait till 9 months for the baby and then start exercises. Then we understood the issue is deeper. We talked with her to find out what the real problem was. It was the family pressure to have children that led her to this condition. She was so desperate to have a baby like it was her existential problem. I felt so sad about her. I couldn’t tell her that there are many other things to do at this young age than waiting for a baby so desperately when her only hope is to have a baby to be treated like a human being in her own family.
A few days ago, there was a delivery of a baby girl. The mother was curious about the sex of the baby, like any other mother. When we said it was a girl, I could see the fear on her face rather than disappointment. It was because she was afraid that her mother-in-law would blame her for giving birth to a girl for the second time.
Amidst all of these situations, JCMB feels like a ray of hope – a women’s hospital run by the majority of women, where they come on their bicycles or scooters riding long distances to earn for their families and look after other women coming from their villages. They are taking care of the mothers and babies coming here like their own family members with compassion and love, alongside fighting against the societal norms.
