Alice Proujansky Photography

Mayan Abdominal Massage

Alice Proujansky — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:29:25 +0000

Elsa Gonzalez Ayala is a traditional midwife in the small town of Chunhuhub in Quintana Roo, Mexico. She performs monthly prenatal massages for her patients, delivers babies in hammocks, and massages women in the weeks following birth to help their uteri contract. She recently adopted a baby, Juan Diego, who was born at seven months to a substance-abusing woman who disappeared soon afterward.

Although she practices traditional Mayan medicine, Doña Elsa is a devout Catholic who brought her son to be baptized, and she visits the local clinic for Western medicine. She showed the students from CASA Midwifery School how to perform abdominal massages, using this pregnant photographer as a demonstration model.

CASA Midwifery Students Intercultural Midwifery Exchange

Alice Proujansky — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 22:31:59 +0000

After their presentations at the Universidad Intercultural Maya, the midwifery students went to study in Mayan villages. Ema, Angie, Carmen Susana, Abi, Lupita and Elisa stayed with traditional midwife Doña Elsa in the small town of Chunhuhub. These students range in age from 17 to 36, and come from varied backgrounds: a performance artist, a small-town high school graduate, a nurse, an artisan who spent years traveling through Latin America.

Doña Elsa practices several kinds of alternative medicine, including herbal baths, ceremonies, chiropractic adjustments, and emotional and spiritual counseling, as well as referring patients to the local health center at times. The students stayed in her medical facility, watching her attend patients with fevers, depression and high blood pressure. Meanwhile, they offered prenatal visits at the health center, gave talks on contraception, and showed traditional midwives how to use analog thermometers, plastic umbilical cord clamps, and other equipment in a kit provided by the school.

Next post: traditional Mayan abdominal massage.

CASA Midwifery Students on a Journey

Alice Proujansky — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 02:12:59 +0000

After preparing their public health presentations – including hand-sewn model pelvises, breasts and amniotic sacs – the students from CASA midwifery school boarded a run-down bus, ate American cheese and hot pepper sandwiches, and rode 32 hours from their school in San Miguel de Allende to the small city of José Maria Morelos in the Southern state of Quintana Roo. There all 40 students slept on the floor of a classroom at the Universidad Intercultural Maya and gave presentations to local traditional Mayan midwives about prenatal resuscitation, post-partum hemorrhage and other topics. The traditional midwives, who had learned from relatives and practiced for many years, taught the students about home births in hammocks, herbal medicines, and their own approaches to obstetric emergencies and prenatal care.

Next post: homestays with traditional midwives.

CASA Midwifery School in Mexico

Alice Proujansky — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:33:36 +0000

Here are some photos from my most recent trip for my Birth and Culture project.

In this first post, students from CASA, Mexico’s only government-accredited midwifery training program, prepared for a trip to rural villages where they studied with Mayan traditional midwives. At their school in San Miguel de Allende, they practiced giving presentations on women’s health and responding to birth emergencies. And in CASA’s hospital, a local traditional midwife delivered a woman’s fifth baby.

Next post: the journey.

A Long Ride

Alice Proujansky — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:42:36 +0000

I’m deep inside of editing my three-week trip to Mexico, where I photographed birth and midwives. It’s a long ride; these pictures are from a long ride I took there.

New Lower Manhattan

Alice Proujansky — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:45:11 +0000

A few weeks ago, I spent two days walking around Lower Manhattan, taking pictures for New York Magazine of new places that have made the neighborhood more fun and liveable recently. It was a great time – I got to take real pictures in a way that was interesting to me, the light was sweet, and at the end of the last day I had great luck with evening light and a florescent doorway.

Jenna Eats a Plum and Chris Sits in a Hotel Room

Alice Proujansky — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:00:53 +0000

Chris Sits Below a Painting and a Flag Whips on the Ferry

Alice Proujansky — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:00:28 +0000

Berries at Aquinnah and, After the Fog, Nick Looks off a Jetty

Alice Proujansky — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:00:45 +0000

Chris Sits at Menemsha and Walks Along a Jetty

Alice Proujansky — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:00:41 +0000