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I had the opportunity to talk with the women who had all their children in the
town, with others who had one or two there and her other children in the city, and with
one who did not have any of her children in the town, but all of them in the city. This is
intimately related to the facilities of transportation that were developing.
Before the 60s, the majority of the women had their children in the town. That is
if there weren’t any complications and they had to take her to the city as an emergency.
After the 60s, the women had a medical gynecologist who examined them
regularly, almost always in Burgos. But if their labor began in the town, they had to do
without him because the distance was too much- taking into account that there were no
appropriate vehicles to notify him. We must remember that the automobile first came to
Ciadoncha in 1946, but it was not used with the liberty as we use it in the year 2000. In
order to call the doctor, they used bicycles or a tractor.
In the 40s and 50s, it was very difficult to find someone who would go call the
doctor in the neighboring town. Many times father Antonio, the priest, would go get him
in his car, but sometimes he could not arrive in time to attend to the woman.
The elders explained to me that they had to prepare all the things that were going
to be needed during the labor and had to have them ready for when their labor began. For
many of them, their labor began while they were working in the field and others in their
house. For the participants who had their children in the 40s or 50s, preparing
themselves consisted of cleaning the scissors and having the bows or ribbons ready to tie
and cut the umbilical cord, preparing the blankets and diapers in such a way that they
would be at hand if the labor occurred during a cold time.
From the moment the women reached their seventh month of pregnancy, they
began preparing the newborn’s clothes and kept it ready so that it could be used at any
moment. Still today some women remember how they would heat the child’s clothes in
the wood burning ovens so that it wouldn’t be too cold when they used it to dress the
child for the first time.
The majority concurred that it was the first birth that was the most difficult, but
with the second they knew better what to do because they could predict what would
happen, and with the third they no longer felt fear and saw it as a very natural experience.
In the 40s, there were women who had up to 16 children, of which only some lived; even
so, in those times families were numerous.
The husband’s presence during the labor is also something that has changed over
time. Some participants, who had their children in the 40s and 50s, told me that they
were present in the room with their wife, giving her encouragement. One of them
expressed the following, which made me think of the profound love that there is between
this couple: “How could I not be with her? She continued to be my woman and I had to
accompany her during these moments.”
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