Jul 15, 2026 · 36 min · 12 segments
In this episode, Augustine sits down with Rafia Islam, a midwife from Bangladesh with eight years of experience spanning refugee camps, mentorship roles, and one of Dhaka's busiest labor wards. Rafia…
Rafia Islam JannatGuestAugustineHostDo you know anything about the statistics in your country? What percentage of women are having C-section in Bangladesh?
Um, the C-section rate is, rate is very high than normal delivery because there is so many issue.
People are, right now people are don't know about properly in a mi- about midwife, that we are midwife and come to us, we provide delivery.
And you know in private hospital, the private sector is full of business so that they don't, they don't take midwife as a m- midwife.
I mean, I, uh, recently I, uh, went a private clinic, uh, to go to my interview.
So I asked them that am I do, uh, am I do normal delivery? And they w- said, they like told as they, "No, you are not d- directly do normal delivery.
Said, "No, I, I don't do that." I'm a very experienced midwife, about eight years of my professional experience, so I know how to, uh, properly conduct a normal delivery without any complication.
That's the scenario and people go to the private hospital and, um, they, they are like harassed by, uh, the, uh, you know policy in the private clinic.
What is the policy that they're harassed with?
No, tell more.
Tell more
We wanna hear
Like a patient, um, uh, first of all they counseling the patient, they come to my hospital we will, uh, conduct your delivery.
But in the meantime when the patient was labor pain they said, "You know, your fetal, uh, heartbeat is low.
We need to C-section right now or it's the around the neck, cord around the neck" and the that time the patient, um, family member was afraid.
They, uh, they just aborting the baby and the mother so they did the decision and go to the C-section.
Do you know anything about the statistics in your country? What percentage of women are having C-section in Bangladesh?
Um, the C-section rate is, rate is very high than normal delivery because there is so many issue.
People are, right now people are don't know about properly in a mi- about midwife, that we are midwife and come to us, we provide delivery.
And you know in private hospital, the private sector is full of business so that they don't, they don't take midwife as a m- midwife.
I mean, I, uh, recently I, uh, went a private clinic, uh, to go to my interview.
So I asked them that am I do, uh, am I do normal delivery? And they w- said, they like told as they, "No, you are not d- directly do normal delivery.
Said, "No, I, I don't do that." I'm a very experienced midwife, about eight years of my professional experience, so I know how to, uh, properly conduct a normal delivery without any complication.
That's the scenario and people go to the private hospital and, um, they, they are like harassed by, uh, the, uh, you know policy in the private clinic.
What is the policy that they're harassed with?
No, tell more.
Tell more
We wanna hear
Like a patient, um, uh, first of all they counseling the patient, they come to my hospital we will, uh, conduct your delivery.
But in the meantime when the patient was labor pain they said, "You know, your fetal, uh, heartbeat is low.
We need to C-section right now or it's the around the neck, cord around the neck" and the that time the patient, um, family member was afraid.
They, uh, they just aborting the baby and the mother so they did the decision and go to the C-section.
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