Maternal and child care among the Tagalogs in Bay, Laguna, Philippines.

An ethnographic picture of certain aspects of maternal and child care among the Tagalogs who inhabit the municipality of Bay, Laguna, Philippines is presented. The objective is to illustrate empirically that traditional practices associated with maternal and child care are not guesswork. Maternal and child care is an important aspect of folk medicine in Bay. Measures to prevent miscarrage, to ease labor, and to insure the safety of the mother have been devised and practiced. The health of both the mother and child receives special attention. The medical concern frequently takes on a religious tone, because most of the practices are interwoven with beliefs in the active participation of supernatural beings in human affairs. Yet, the system of delivery and child care includes steps that are recognized in scientific medicine. There is awareness of what care needs to be taken to insure the safety of mother and child. The inaccessibility of technological resources and of modern knowledge in maternal and child care is what inhibits the peasants from moving away from what has been traditionally proven to be successful. There is sex education in terms of hygiene and care among people in the Bay. Adolescent females receive instructions from their mothers on what to do when they begin to menstruate. The rituals are performed because these are part of the medically approved ways of dealing with menstrual problems. The people in the Bay are familiar with methods of controlling birth. Coitus interruptus is the most widely used folk method of birth control. No other method is readily available within the people's economic means. Soapsuds and vaginal creams are also known to some women.