The healer on the margins: the dai in rural Bangladesh

I have explored aspects of childbirth in rural Bangladesh in several recent publications (Rozario 1995a, 1995b, 1998). Broadly speaking, as discussed below, my findings were close to those of researchers such as Thérèse Blanchet (1984), also working in rural Bangladesh, and Patricia Jeffery, Roger Jeffery and Andrew Lyon, working in Uttar Pradesh in North India (Jeffery, Jeffery and Lyon 1989; see also Chapter 4 this volume). I found that birth was strongly associated with shame and pollution. Most births took place at home, with the assistance of traditional birth attendants, called dais (sometimes dhatri or dhoruni). These dais were elderly women from low-status backgrounds. Their expertise was routinely devalued and their authority given little recognition. They received little or no…