Project Detail: Maternity Ward

Contest:

Women photographers exhibition 2016



Brand:

LuganoPhotoDays



Author:

Kerstin Hacker

 

Project Info

Maternity Ward

Three nurses per shift did not only care for the pregnant women, but also had to clean medical instruments and do paperwork.

Overworked and underpaid staff found it at times difficult to emotionally care for the pregnant women. Women were at times treated as ‘teaching material’ with student doctors, nurses and midwives observing.

Mothers were strapped down into a physical position that was the most convenient to the medical team, contrary to the natural process and most painful for the women. In order to speed up the mothers were given drugs, and at times babies were physically pushed out of the mother’s womb.

Expectant mothers were threatened with caesarian sections if they cried too much. Immediately after giving birth, women were separated from their children and were only reunited for feeding.

Fathers were not allowed to assist births or see the babies before the mothers left the hospital.

Kerstin Hacker was born in Bavaria/Germany and was accepted to FAMU (University of the Applied Arts) in Prague/Czech Republic as one of the first Western students in 1990. Kerstin Hacker is an Alexia Grant alumni in the US and winner of the EMMA/Agfa Prize for Female Photojournalist in 1993.

As a freelancer has covered themes like Children in Prison, Prostitution, Sudeten Germans and has worked for NGOs all over the world.

After the birth of her son Felix in 2005 she concentrated on teaching the next generation of photographers and is now course leader for the BA Photography and the MA Photography at the Cambridge School of Art/Anglia Ruskin University.

Captions:

1 The women are being given surgical garments and are waiting in a separate room close to the Maternity Ward

4 Doctors and patients are tiered after a long shift and are wishing for oxygen.

5 Often there are multiple women giving birth at the same time. The room divider gives some privacy.

10 Moist cloths help with dehydration during labour and provide some privacy in the busy maternity ward.

15 Birth while lying on the back can be extremely painful and often requires a episiotomy, as the baby can not turn fully without gravity.

17 The child is shown to the mother

21 Babies are separated from their mothers and are looked after by nurses. The mothers see their children only during breast feeding.

22 Children being delivered back to the mothers for feeding

Photos