Around the world, people must grasp the concept of a corona- virus. They are asked to prevent the spread of an invisible germ that can be passed from person to person, as they pursue everyday activities.
At first we are told that it will spread if we cough or sneeze on someone and now are told it can spread just from talking. We are asked to stay six feet from each other and to wear masks. Six foot x's are placed on the grocery store floors. We are asked to stay home and wash our hands with soap over and over again.
Those of us who can, listen to scientific explanations of the structure of the virus and how it spreads. We come to see that only soap and water can destroy the virus on our hands. The concept of a bar of soap a mystery to the younger generation who search frantically for fragrant, foaming soap in bottles.
These invisible foes, have existed for thousands of years in many forms. Long before we knew about germs, epidemics were called plagues and were blamed on mysterious enemies and human flaws. A mold led to the Salem Witch Trials. Stories of vampires emerged from misunderstood European diseases. Diseases were blamed on a lack of religious fervor, on nationality and gender. Yesterday a very old friend, posts three maps on Facebook that illustrate that the carom-virus is related to immigration and being a democratic. We look someone to blame, beyond the actual virus and its ability to spread and survive. When I was a child I was told ice cream and public swimming pools caused polio. There are Old Testament verses that beg God to deliver pestilence and disease on a person's enemy.
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| My drawing of a mythical monster that seeks to harm the newborn. In my interpretation the "baby" is the earth and all it offered us. The monster is all the forces that make the world unhealthy for newborns everywhere. The wings are air, water and soil pollution. The claws represent the greed that robs children of good health. |
People used human attributes of cunning and greed, to explain newborn and maternal death. While most likely true that the deaths were caused by broad forms of cunning and greed, they were of a human sort that most often denied them an education, health education and the right to choose their own future. Epidemics often were brought by colonial powers to far away parts of the world, without the immune system to defend them.
In Haiti, a well educated translator told me that there is a bad spirit that kills babies and mothers, after birth. We have just done a home visit. He seems skeptical that all our advice will be of use because if the spirit comes and takes the breath from the baby, there is nothing that can stop this. I reason. There are a few things that could cause an otherwise healthy newborn to die. I review the things that we test for; the silent germs and genetic disorders that could cause a newborn to die. I review the need for exclusive breastfeeding, proper cord care and hygiene. The need for some filtered sunlight and skin to skin contact. Ah, he says. This is all true but the spirit may still come in the window at night and draw the baby's breath out and cause death. This spirit may be sent by your enemy's or someone who is quite jealous of you.
The almost universal baby stealing monster who exists the world around. The monster who explains the unimaginable grief of losing a perfectly healthy newborn.
In light of this, cultures developed rituals and customs to protect the newborn; a piece of red string, a knife by their head when they sleep, amulets and prayers. Beautiful traditions accompanied by deep fears that are hard to shake. Fears that sometimes keep parents from having healthy babies.
I try to think. How many babies, I delivered, would have died quietly in their sleep without newborn screening or testing cord blood for incompatibilities. Not a lot, but babies in low resource communities, do not have access to these screenings and so some babies, will surely mysteriously die. Some will die because someone told the midwives to cover the cord or to not give the baby the first milk. Some will die from post colonial birth practices. Some will die from the many issues of environmental exploitation.
Monsters.
In the Marshal Islands, the unbearable loss of a newborn was blamed on the monster, Mejnwaad. This female monster steals newborn babies and eats them! These unexplainable deaths must have a villain and someone to blame. In the Philippines, its Mannanggal, a winged monster who comes and devours newborns.
Today, in many communities around the world the monster that threatens the newborn, lives in the form of those who would pollute the world; its air, its water and its soil. It lives in the greedy claws of those who de-forest; destroying indigenous cultures, contributing to climate change and destroying food sources. The monster dwells in the industries, built along our rivers and streams that are jammed with pollution and chemicals. It wraps its tendrils around affordable housing and healthy food sources. The world is polluted with radiation from nuclear bomb testing and chemical waste. The terrible monster delivers its blow in premature births, a lack of equitable, not for profit healthcare. The monster who sucks the life out of our newborns flies amongst us, only now we don't know how to name it. There is no story to scare young children. There are no rituals or amulets. The monster has no name. It flies without boundaries throughout the world - as a virus, as a war, as a baby in a refugee camp.
Watch out. This baby eating monster is at all of our windows. The ancients understood this and were beware.
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