Bounlid's baby

The World Health Organization is following six women around the world to compare their experiences of pregnancy and motherhood. Here, Bounlid from Laos describes life with her baby Lang, who is now six months old.

Damiana Mamani: Bolivia 'His father's teaching Alberth football!' Samah Mohamed : Egypt 'She loves rice pudding' Hiwot Abraham: Ethiopia 'Elizabeth is happy and active'

Renu Sharma: India 'Monica is crawling at high speed!' Bounlid: Laos 'We can't afford clinic visits' Claire Roche: UK 'She's eating solid foods'

Bounlid is back at work, as well as caring for Lang.

'No health workers have been to our village'

She told the WHO: "Lang and I are in good health. She now weighs 6.5kg and seems to get heavier every day!

"I am still breastfeeding Lang whenever she wants to be fed. I have no idea how many times a day I feed her - why would I count?"

She added: "Just one week ago, Lang started eating a little rice as well. I think she's copying her brothers and sisters.

"I haven't taken Lang to the local clinic - we can't afford it.

"There are supposed to be twice-yearly visits to our village by a mobile health clinic, but nobody has come to the village recently.

"I hope they come soon because I would like Lang to be immunised like her brothers and sisters."

Lang's brothers and sisters look after her while Bounlid works

Bounlid added: "I am now back at work cutting bamboo and making fences.

"Soon our village will be connected to the electricity network and we'll be able to work in the evening as well as during the day.

"We've worked out that this could increase our earnings by half again to US$4.5 a day.

"Lang's brothers and sisters take care of her while I work. That are really good with her.

"If I'm out in the forest, I sometimes don't return home for hours at a time."

In Laos, 40% of children under five years of age are underweight.

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At six weeks

Bounlid is 27. She lives in the Vientiane province in Laos.

She is busy caring for her new daughter Lang, her fifth child.

Bounlid told the WHO: "Both Lang and I are in good health, although I am finding it hard to get my energy back. I'm breastfeeding throughout the day and night and Lang is growing fast.

"I have to start working again and the heat is intense.

'Ill have to take her with me when I go back to the forest'

"In a few days time I will have to go back to the forest to chop bamboo.

"I'll have to take Lang with me because there is nobody at home to look after her."

Bounlid added: "Our water supply has dried up in the heat. My eldest daughter, Sivilay, who is seven years old, has to collect water from our neighbour's well which is half a kilometre away.

"Unfortunately this means she has to miss some school, but I'm simply too tired to do this myself."

She said: "No health worker has been to visit us. The local health clinic - which is just a few hundred metres away - is always empty, so even if Lang were ill, we probably wouldn't go there".

Bounlid worries about Lang's health, particularly as her second daughter died when she was just six weeks old.

In Laos, one in 11 children die before the age of five, the majority from preventable and treatable conditions such as malaria, pneumonia and measles.

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Seven days

A week after her daughter was born, Bounlid told the WHO: "I spent several days trying to think of a name for her and decided on Lang - which means 'foreigner' in our language.

"In my village we never have outsiders visiting, but because of the World Health Organization project there has been a lot of foreign interest in our lives. So I thought this name was appropriate."

She added: "In our culture, a woman who has just given birth spends a number of days by the smoking embers of a fire.

"For the first born child, a mother will spend a month by the fire, but luckily Lang is my fifth child, so I won't have to do this for much longer.

"I really need to get back to basket making. No one in our family is earning money right now."

Lang's brothers and sisters look after her while Bounlid works

Bounlid added: "My husband doesn't seem very interested in his new daughter. He reminds me that we have many girls already and that he would have preferred a boy."

She said the family had not visited a clinic, but health workers had visited the village to give routine vaccinations to village children. Bounlid was also given some vitamin A.

She added: "I would like to stop having children. We have a big enough family now, but I don't know how to do this and no one has given me any advice."

The WHO says that 26 out of every 1,000 babies die in their first week of life from preventable diseases.

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Childbirth

Bounlid told the WHO after she gave birth to her daughter: "My labour lasted around 36 hours. It was incredibly painful and I'm exhausted.

"I gave birth at home, with no medical assistance. I am so relieved my husband Nga was with me.

"Nga cut the umbilical cord with a splinter of bamboo - it has a razor-sharp edge and is naturally very clean. This is a traditional practice where we live."

Her husband washed the floor as soon as Bounlid had given birth, and the house was back to normal within 10 minutes.

Bounlid added: "All that's changed is that we have another mouth to feed."

"I feel worn out. I will have to return to work in the fields again soon.

"We have to start earning money again as I have a family to feed. We only had rice and bananas for dinner today."

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Seven months

Bounlid told the WHO she was unsure about when her baby will be born, but she had a feeling it was a girl.

Bounlid makes a living making bamboo baskets. They are sold for 1,000 Lao kip each (10 US cents).

She continued to work during her pregnancy.

When she was seven months pregnant, Bounlid said: "It's extremely heavy work - bending, stretching and carrying - and I can only manage a little at a time before I have to take a break."

Bounlid plans to give birth to the baby at home. Her family cannot afford to have a skilled attendant present.

Just 19.4% of births in Laos are assisted by a skilled attendant, such as a midwife, doctor or nurse.

And only 29% of pregnant women have at least one antenatal check up during their pregnancy.

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Five months

Bounlid and her husband Nga have three healthy children, but sadly their second daughter died when she was just six weeks old.

'I don't expect any rest'

She told the WHO: "I've had no antenatal care and I don't expect to have any for the rest of my pregnancy."

Bounlid plans to give birth at home, as she has with her other four children.

She added: "It is too expensive for most people to give birth with a skilled assistant at the clinic which, in any case, has very basic facilities and no telephone or ambulance if there were complications."

Bounlid said she does worry about emergencies.

Lao People's Democratic Republic has one of the highest rates of maternal death in the world.

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Where the women live

Photos courtesy of the World Health Organization.