Birth & Midwifery in Peru
RESOURCES FOR PARENTS AND PRACTITIONERS

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Some of the following sites may not be in English; an online translator may be useful.

Midwifery Today Country Contact

Cynthia Ingar is a Peruvian medical and feminist anthropologist (MA) and is trained as a doula and women's health educator. She is now a doctoral student in Anthropology at Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru. Her research has been and is centered in Andean women's reproductive health; authoritative knowledge dynamics including local knowledge (particularly of the Andean midwifery system) and women's embodied knowledge; and the politics of reproduction in Peru. She is now dedicated to KillaWarmi Project, a reproductive health community-centered project designed to empower Andean women through unbiased knowledge and to strengthen and revitalize Andean traditional midwifery and community feminine networks.

Cynthia tells us: "My vision of extending my research in the Andes on women's reproductive health and its sociocultural and political dynamics is to help health NGOs and government agencies (including the Ministry of Health) to know better Peru's health reality and how culture and women's autonomy is determinant in the quality of health of these communities. My proposal is of a new public health which is intercultural and gender sensitive and where reproductive rights are protected. I hope to contribute with this through KillaWarmi itinerant project for Andean women to reclaim birth and their reproduction control back to the community. My ultimate goal is to implement a midwifery center, which would work together with independent midwifery professionals to give the best quality of health possible to women and their babies, in their own Andean tradition—which is filled with wisdom."

To contact Cynthia Ingar or any other Midwifery Today Country Contact, write to the IAM administrator.

Birth/Midwifery

• www.pakarii.com—the natural birth center at Lima; Doula workshops are also given
• KillaWarmi Project—www.killawarmiproject.blogspot.com: Women's reproductive health community project

Parenting/Breastfeeding

• www.llli.org/Peru.html—La Liga de la Leche Perú (La Leche League International, Peru), an organization that gives free information and support to mothers and pregant women on breastfeeding
• www.lactared.com.pe—CEPREN/Red Peruana de Lactancia (Peruvian Network of Breastfeeding)