Countless blessings : a history of childbirth and reproduction in the Sahel / Barbara M. Cooper.

Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, 2019.

xii, 345 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

How do women in Hausa-speaking Niger think about pregnancy and childbirth differently from women in the United States or Europe? Barbara M. Cooper sets out to answer this question to understand how childbirth has been experienced in the history of the African Sahel, a place that has the world's highest fertility rates, but also one of the highest rates of maternal and infant mortality. Cooper presents a history of what it is like for many rural women to bear children in Niger. She sketches out the influence of geography, ethnicity, social status, and religion to come to a deeper understanding of reproduction and the practices of fertility and maternal well-being from colonialism to today. Cooper unveils a complex landscape of religious and family life where women who have no children may be shunned, where competition between wives for fertility may be intense, and where access to medicine may be improvised. In this patriarchal society where women are poorly educated a culture of sorrow and shame develops among them. Cooper suggests that in this volatile environment it is little wonder that pregnancy and birth are tremendously dangerous practices.

Online version: Cooper, Barbara MacGowan, author. Countless blessings Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, 2019

English

August 26, 2019

Includes bibliographical references and index.