Each month, around 20 pregnant women come with the Comadrona grandmother María Elena Cuxe to evaluate them and accompany them to the delivery. She attends them in her mother tongue – Kaqchikel – and under their customs, that makes them feel comfortable, in addition to being available 24 hours in the Asunción Chivoc, San Juan Sacatepéquez hamlet.
“We attend at any time, we have no vacation, neither Saturdays nor Sundays. If we are eating or sleeping we go to the houses of the pregnant women, ”says the midwife, then The health center is 45 minutes and the hospital for almost two hoursand to get the roads they are in poor condition, which represents a risk for a pregnant woman.
“We not only receive babies, we cure children. We do it as a pediatrician, a gynecologist, the same, if there are people with fever we give them natural medicine, ”says Cuxe, Attention for many times do not pay them due to socioeconomic conditions in communities.
“If they are emergencies, one goes, the person has money or not, one saves the life of the patient and the baby,” he adds. Per month he attends between two and three births, since there are more and more high -risk pregnancies, which refers to the hospital.
Necessary work
The comadrones are the “right arm” of the Ministry of Health in the communities, because they have a presence where there is no health coverage. Of that account, the Congress of the Republic approved on February 25 that They are given Q4 thousand, in two payments of Q2 thousand each. The first will be May 19 and the second six months later.
“They are Q11 a day, it is not a payment but a recognition of the work of the midwives by the State. It is a symbolic and motivating contribution to continue with our work, ”says Angelina Sacbaja, vice president of the National Comadrone Movement Nim Alaxik.
At the time of approved the decree, Congress reported 23,500 midwives, a fact that does not coincide with that of the Ministry of Health, which registers 19 thousand 462 – until December 2024 -, the discrepancy could be due to deaths or because some stopped working for their advanced age, according to Sacbaja.
But it is the data of the Ministry of Health that in the end will determine how many midwives will be benefited. If the number is maintained, the portfolio Q38.9 million must pay next Mayand for November 19 a similar amount, as established by Decree 4-2025, which was approved by national urgency by the deputies.
At the moment, Health analyzes if you have enough funds to deliver the Q4 thousand to each midwife. Of the container, sE will consider the readjustment to the budget or manage a budget extensionas the portfolio reported.
The Ministry recognizes the comadrones as their allies, since they are community health agents, they become counselors, attend births and accompany families, pregnant women, puerperas and neonates mainly, and contribute to the impulse of maternal-neonatal care with cultural relevance, since they know the contexts and many of them speak the languages of the town.
Beyond childbirth
According to the health portfolio, in 2023 the National Institute of Statistics (INE) reported that Comadrones grandmothers attended 73 thousand births, which represents 21 percent of the lighting registered that year. Sacbaja adds that In the west of the country they serve more than 70% of births.
Cuxe has already lost the account of how many babies has helped bring the world, because he has 39 years of being Comadrona grandmother. He considers that this is a gift and a mission of life, a generational inheritance to preserve the ancestral knowledge and wisdom that he shares with his community.
“We are the right arm of the Ministry of Health, we are throughout the country, we do not have a schedule, we are 24 hours lending and willing to help. We are in the first line of attention, ”says Nim Alaxik’s vice president.
To be able to exercise their work, Each midwife must be registered with the service or health district of its localityand to achieve this there are guidelines that must be met, in addition to having experience and making an internship in health services, it must gain the trust of the community. This process can take years and allow them to obtain a card that authorizes them to attend deliveries and record the babies they receive.
In Huehuetenango, Alta Verapaz and Quiché 42.7 percent of those that are registered are located. These departments have the highest incidence of poverty in the country, according to INE report, with 81.2 percent, 90.3 percent and 86.4 percent, respectively.
Fight of years
Sacbaja mentions that the struggle for the dignification of midwife grandmothers has been. In 2022 the law declared by the May 19 of each year on the National Day of the Guatemalan Comadrona Iyom and/or Rati’t ak’aland in which an economic support of Q3 thousand annually was established, delivered to two parts.
However, it was a transitory article. In the General Budget of Income and Expenditures of the State of 2023, funds were planned to deliver the incentive, however, it was not approved, and the same happened in 2024.
After two years of pilgrimage in different banks of Congress, on February 25 it was approved through an amendment raise the incentive to Q4 thousand in two paymentsand that accreditation will not be necessary by card so that the midwives receive it.
In addition, it was established that both the Ministry of Health and Finance must review every two years the possibility of an increase in the sum of agreement with the cost of the basic basket.
“It is deep and significant for us, with this the state of Guatemala says: ‘Yes there are comadrones in Guatemala and we are giving them the importance they deserve,” says Sacbaja, because this starts from the dignification that the group has sought.