the Maya

Yes, it has been more than a few months since I have posted anything. I do however have some good excuses. I’ve been real busy. I finished my graduate coursework, passed my 2nd and final qualifying exam and advanced to doctoral candidacy. Additionally, my first publication came out. Here is the reference:

Balick, Michael J., Jillian M. De Gezelle and Rosita Arvigo. 2008. Feeling the Pulse in Maya Medicine: An Endangered Tool for Diagnosis, Therapy and Tracking Patients’ Progress. EXPLORE-The Journal of Science and Healing 4(2):113-119.

I was also busy with preparations for my return to southern Belize for another season of fieldwork. I spent 3 months in the Toledo District, completing 26 interviews this trip. Now I am back in NYC for a few weeks to touch base and handle stateside responsibilities. And.. planning my next trip back to Central America in June. Last but certainly not least of the news, before heading to Belize in February, I was blessed with the opportunity to assist in 2 beautiful births. One was that of a colleague and great new friend, and the other was my sister’s first birth. Below is the story of my niece Hazel’s birth day.

I arrived in Philadelphia on December 22nd, Melissa’s EDD (Estimated Date of Delivery). I had been prepared to head to Philly at any point in the couple weeks prior, but she and the baby were not yet ready. First time moms go late more often than they go early, so it was no big surprise. By the 22nd, I had tied up all loose ends in New York, was relieved from any other responsibilities and was planning to be in Pennsylvania for Christmas anyway, so I decided to head down and wait for Melissa to go into labor. Contractions of varying degrees had come off and on for days. Eleven days later, around 8:30am on January 2nd, I was still asleep in the guest bedroom. I heard Melissa’s voice at the door, saying “Jill, it’s time.” I woke up and saw Melissa and my brother-in-law, Julian standing in the doorway. At that point I was not sure how long she had been laboring in this early stage before they decided to wake me, so I jumped up out of bed, took a quick shower and put on clean, comfortable clothes - yoga pants and a hoodie.

Melissa laid down in bed for a while, listening to her hypnobirthing music on her iPod, while the contractions were not too strong. Julian and I started to fill the birthing pool with the warmest water we could get from the sink via hose, supplemented by large pots of hot water we heated on the stove. Soon after the midwife arrived. Melissa came down to the living room and got in the pool and midwives #2 and #3 arrived. The whole practice was excited for Melissa’s long-awaited homebirth, so everyone came out for the event! We had Melissa get out of the the pool and try laboring in different positions for several hours. When she settled into letting her instincts guide her movements, she began to move like women move in middle eastern dance, as in “bellydance.” I knew this was one of the purported origins of the movements, but it was fascinating to see it so clearly. These natural movements seemed to be her instinctual response to the sensation of the contractions. They are also conducive to enabling the baby to descend into proper position.

It was a long labor followed by a long period of pushing, and the midwife thought at one point that Melissa may need to go to the hospital to complete the pushing and birth the baby, due to her exhaustion. Hearing that gave Melissa the motivation to return to the birthing pool and have some unwanted sips of sugar-spiked OJ, which rejuvenated her enough to get back in the bed and start pushing again. We could see the baby’s hair emerging and retreating with every pushing cycle. Finally her head emerged and it was such an emotional moment for everyone in the room (sister/doula, husband, mother, mother-in-law, 3 midwives and a midwife’s assistant) to see this adorable, chubby face come to light. Melissa took a quick break from pushing, then resumed and next came the baby’s upraised fist, followed by the rest of her body. With the help of midwife #2, Melissa lifted the baby onto her chest. Hazel Charlotte was born at 10:07pm! The baby started breastfeeding soon after and Melissa delivered the placenta. At this point we were all down in the living room, so after Melissa was cleaned and tended to, 4 of us hoisted her up by the sheet she was laying on and carried her up the stairs of their old Victorian house to the bedroom on the 2nd floor. Everyone gathered around to watch the baby get weighed. A very impressive 9lb 10oz!! Mind you that my sister is 5′2”, 105lbs at her non-pregnant weight. This all natural homebirth was no small feat! Melissa had a long recovery, but says it was all worth it and would definitely birth at home again.

A major victory for indigenous land rights everywhere was won in none other than the Toledo District of Belize by the Maya people of Santa Cruz and Conejo villages. The two villages filed cases claiming that their customary land rights had not been acknowledged by two governmental entities in Belize - the Attorney General and the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, by approving oil and logging exploration on lands traditionally held by the Maya.

The court declared that the villages hold “collective and individual rights in the lands and resources that they have used and occupied according to Maya customary practices and that these rights constitute “property”“ that the defendants must cease from any acts which “affect the existence, value, use or enjoyment of the property located in the geographic area occupied and used by the Maya people of Santa Cruz and Conejo without their informed consent.” The court ordered that the government must abstain from issuing leases, grants, concessions for resource exploitation including authorizing logging, prospecting or exploration (including for oil) and mining, as well as issuing any regulations concerning land use in those areas.

The recently delivered decision of Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh stated that Belize is obligated to respect and protect Maya customary lands based on various national and international statutes including the Belizean constitution, and the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This is the very first judgment applied specifically to the U.N. declaration, which was adopted in September by the U.N. General Assembly.

Some may know that I conduct my fieldwork there in the Toledo District in Belize with the Maya people, so I am anxiously awaiting word on how this is going to affect the other Maya villages in the region, which are home to friends and collaborators. Hopefully this will set a precedent for decisions regarding land rights for Maya throughout Belize and indigenous communities everywhere. Few Belizeans thought the Chief Justice would rule in favor of the Maya people. What an exciting surprise turn of events!