All Bundled Up

Meet Suleiman Rahimzai, 2 days old in this photo and 10 days old today. He is the newborn son of Mir, a fellow colleague in the Institute of Healthcare Improvement's "Improvement Advisor" course that I'm taking in Accra, Ghana. We are four months into the program, and currently in the middle of our second in-person collaborative and course. One of the most amazing aspects of the program is how diverse the participants are -- 25 healthcare professionals from countries like Afghanistan, Cote d'Ivoire, Guatamala, India, and Malawi, and working on significant quality improvement projects such as reducing maternal mortality, reducing severe acute malnutrition in children under 5, and improving the quality of HIV/AIDS healthcare.

Sometimes the diversity hits in its rawness... like when Mir's colleague spoke about the top causes of mortality for children under 5 in Afghanistan: and fighting/war was one of the top categories (incredible). It's a country I know so little about, except what's portrayed in the news and in novels like Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. But it fascinates me, in part because of all the opportunities for improving basic quality of life there, like healthcare. I find myself jealous of friends who have worked there, and think about potential opportunities there, one day.

And so it's with great fascination and intrigue that I learn about newborn traditions in Afghanistan from Mir. His son, like all newborns, was tied up in a bundle as soon as he was born. Babies remain tied up for five months! -- approximately 20 hours each day (when they are not being cleaned or washed). Mir explains that the bundling not only keeps babies warm, but it helps them sleep undisturbed, in an environment that mimics the tight confines of the womb. There is also a spiritual component of "keeping out the evil."

What's interesting here is that apparently bundling up babies in little "baby straightjackets" (similar to Mir's son) is starting to becoming all the rage in the US -- the contraption is said to significantly help stimulate sleep. Yet another example of "tradition" becoming "innovation" through its journey from a developing country to the developed world.