Between What is Common and What is Right
“If we’re not careful, we can mistake what is common for what is normal, or even what is right.”
As a child, I was often called inquisitive. Adults told me I had a “creative mind.” I remember bringing my friends together to perform plays, poems, and all sorts of activities at school. I wanted to try everything. I was not a quiet child. I started using my voice early in the Anti-AIDS club and environmental club. I barely knew about HIV/AIDS and yet I wanted to learn more and speak out about it.
Fast forward 20+ years, I find myself working in global health. It’s a field where there is so much to care about. So much to speak up for in my native Zambia and around the world. What I didn’t realize was that over time, I had lost some of my inquisitiveness. I had lost some of the eagerness and boldness I was known for as a little girl. I almost started to accept what is common for what is right.
That is until I delivered my own little girl as a first-time mum last year. I chose to deliver at a public hospital. I thought my knowledge — gathered from nearly a decade of working in Zambia’s health sector — would protect me from harm. I knew about patients’ rights and maternal health policies from my work in the health sector.
And yet, I ended up delivering my baby on the bathroom floor in the hospital. From the moment I entered the hospital in labor, I was in a vulnerable position. I was at the mercy of the healthcare workers. I was lucky to have a stubborn mother who refused to leave my side when she was chased from the hospital because it was hospital policy to not have a ‘bedsider’ to hold me through the pain.
Each time I asked for my labor progression to be examined, I was shut down and told to be strong and wait. I was told, “it’s your first pregnancy, you still have a lot of time so just be strong, as a woman is supposed to be.” I felt unheard. As a first-time mom, my anxiety and fear left me unable to say anything despite my knowledge about what could or should be. This is the standard of care and I had to accept it. The only time I received the attention was when I was on the bathroom floor, my baby’s head almost coming out and my mom was screaming for help.
Like many countries, I think my country’s health system is more reactive than preventive, oriented to a low bar of just keeping us alive with little emphasis on holistic care. Lack of resources keeps high-quality, holistic, dignified, patient-centered care out of reach.
Over the past year, I have asked myself often: “What could have happened if my mom wasn’t stubborn enough to stay with me? What could have happened to my precious little girl? What could have happened to me?”
Thankfully I had a healthy birth with no complications and no need for life-saving surgery. Many other women are not as fortunate. Still, it has taken time to heal from the undignified experience. My story is such a common story for women that it has become a normal occurrence, but should it be? Shouldn’t we aim higher?
I look at my little girl sometimes and shiver to imagine her going through what I went through if she grows up and chooses to have a baby. What kind of healthcare do I want her to get? What kind of healthcare will keep her safe and sane?
And what if she decides to be a global health leader? Will she be fighting the same uphill battle in a field where women from low and middle-income countries hold just 5% of top leadership positions?
“Quality healthcare is not a luxury, it is a necessity.”
We need to do better now for our future generations. I offer all I have in service of that goal: my skills, my expertise, my position. The inquisitiveness I had as a child and want to resurrect.
I vow to tell these common stories until they become uncommon. Unheard of. Unacceptable and actually not accepted. It is time to allow those most impacted by health inequities to direct decisions, funding, and power.
I will never stop saying it: Health is a human right. In addition to that, quality healthcare is not a luxury, it is a necessity.
We have a saying in maternal health campaigns… “No woman should die while giving life”...And I’d like to add … “No child should die living an unlived life.”
If we’re not careful, we can mistake what is common for what is normal, or even what is right.
Kutha Banda was a 2016–2017 fellow. She currently serves as a Program Officer at Clinton Health Access Initiative, Zambia.
Global Health Corps (GHC) is a leadership development organization building the next generation of health equity leaders around the world. All GHC fellows, partners, and supporters are united in a common belief: health is a human right. There is a role for everyone in the movement for health equity. To learn more, visit our website and connect with us on Twitter/Instagram/Facebook.
