Quibdo, Colombia – Nohemí Manco was just 14 years old when she first delivered a baby — her sister's. With no one else nearby, she had to step in. Their home was in the remote municipality of Unguía, surrounded by dense jungle, waterfalls, and wildlife. Medical services were limited, and emergency transport was both distant and costly.
As a child, Manco had watched her mother comfort laboring women on sweltering nights. She learned to cut umbilical cords, brew pain-relieving teas, and provide postpartum care. When her sister's water broke, Manco felt ready. “I loved that work. I wasn't afraid at all, even though my sister was a bit scared,” Manco recalled.
Four decades later, at age 53, she estimates she has delivered about 1,200 babies in the coastal province of Chocó — possibly more. “When a child is born, it's like dawn. Everything is dark, and then it brightens. When the baby arrives, it's joy and relief at the same time.”
Manco is part of the long-standing tradition of “parteras tradicionales” — traditional midwives — who play a central role in many of Colombia's remote communities, especially among Afro-Colombian and indigenous groups. They are often the first point of care for expectant mothers: monitoring pregnancies, delivering babies, and providing postpartum care.
In some areas, hospitals are hours — even days — away. The isolation leaves many mothers and newborns vulnerable to complications without adequate medical attention, often resulting in death. “Mortality rates are higher, proportionally, in rural areas,” said Liany Katerine Ariza Ruiz, a public health researcher at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá who specializes in maternal health inequality. “Therefore, midwives are the main and most stable resource for rural communities.”
