Dakin Sadgopal, Dr. Mira — Midwifery in Rural India-Part 1
Dr. Mira Dakin-Sadgopal is an obstetrician and gynecologist living and working in rural India and an organizer of the Jeeva Project, which in part, studies an indigenous midwifery practice that uses the placenta to revive newborn babies who are unable to breathe. In a two part series we discuss current and traditional midwifery practices in India’s rural countryside.
Dr. Dakin-Sadgopal is the Managing Trustee of Tathapi, a small center for ‘Women and Health’ Resource Development in India, where she has lived for over 3 decades. In the 1980s Dr. Dakin-Sadgopal provided medical relief to victims of the Union Carbide gas leak in Bhopal. She later collaborated with women members of a landless laborer’s union to run “Zaroori Dawai ki Suvidha” – “essential medicines facility,” a local village medical co-operative. She is the author of “In Our Hands,” and the editor of two books, “Her Healing Heritage,” and “Na Shariram Nadhi,” – “My Body is Mine.”
In 2007 Dr. Dakin-Sadgopal was the recipient of the Chingari Award for Women Against Corporate Crimes, which is given annually to a woman activist who has taken up the cause of a community fighting corporate criminal activity in India. Dr. Dakin-Sadgopal grew up in California and is now citizen of India. This, the first of two interviews with Dr. Mira Dakin-Sadgopal was recorded in the studios of Radio Curious on September 6th, 2010.
The book Dr. Dakin-Sadgopal recommends is, “Anila’s Journey,” by Mary Finn.
Click here to listen to part one of the interview with Dr. Mira Dakin-Sadgopal, or click on the player below.
Click here to listen to part two of the interview with Dr. Mira Dakin Sadgopal.
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