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Wind was also a source of cold, both as a source of physical coldness as well as a vector of illness that was capable of affecting a child or other vulnerable person. Just as dampness was believed to be almost as dangerous as rain to infants,

39 so too were very slight air currents looked upon as being almost as dangerous as wind itself. I was expected to protect my sons from even the slightest of air currents that could expose them to a cold ‘golpe de aire’ (blast of wind). I was not allowed to answer the door if I was holding my son, and doors and windows had to be shut if he had a bath. On a bus, a man next to me asked if I wanted the window shut. I said no, to which he replied, ‘no, for the baby.’ He thought the draught from the open window might harm my son and that I might be worried about it. Similarly, at the women’s project on several occasions I needed to go from one building to another to go to the kitchens. I was stopped by several women insisting I should not take him across the ‘pasadita’ (gap) because he would be exposed to a gust of wind and he could get ill. My definition of wind was again different to theirs. In the above situation, they meant currents of air, but in my opinion these currents were hardly detectable, much like the drizzle, and they certainly didn’t warrant stopping me from going outside for a few minutes with my son. The other women said they would prefer that I stayed where I was, and offered to bring me anything I needed since they did not want to put my son at risk from the cold.

Figure 5 “Maria's waters have just broken.”

(Wint/UNFPA 2008)

The above photograph shows how the woman in labour has her back covered by a towel to keep her warm, but her companions do not have this extra layer. This is because Guatemalan women in labour, as well as those who have recently given birth, are thought to be vulnerable to cold. This extra layer is added because the

40 main objective is to protect the woman from respiratory infections to which they believe women in labour are extra vulnerable. Since cold is believed to enter the lungs from the back, keeping the back warm is therefore a priority. A towel in Guatemala is used to provide warmth, whereas in white British culture a towel would not be used for such a purpose because of its association with being damp.

The pouch used by indigenous mothers to carry their infants also serves to keep mothers’ backs warm, thereby preventing cold air from getting into the mother’s lungs and making her ill or affecting her milk.

As most women carried their babies in their arms or in a pouch, my baby-carrier sent from the UK was a source of controversy. One woman working on a supermarket customer service desk I was talking to whilst my son was in the carrier, said that her mother would not allow her to use a carrier for her baby. This was because she had found a front facing baby carrier and the wind would ‘hit’ the baby in the face and give him a sore throat.

Another example of wind entering the body was when a fellow teacher warned me about holding my son in my arms and swinging him from side to side because wind could get into his head through the fontella and give him flu.

Draughts therefore, of any intensity, were a source of cold and illness to an infant from which they needed complete protection. Because of the dangers of wind and draughts, clothing and bedding were not only a source of insulation for the infant but a barrier from cold air that brought illness. Therefore, infants had to be

completely covered, including the face, so that air could not enter from any point.

I was told constantly by strangers on buses, in shops, and on the street to cover my son. This always meant he had to be entirely covered up, that his head should be covered, but also not one tiny part of his body could be uncovered.

Sometimes men and women, young and old, would alert me that part of his leg or other body part was uncovered, as if I hadn’t noticed. If I took no action, some people would cover up the exposed skin for me. Everyone helped to make sure infants stayed covered up.

41 2.3.3.6 Explaining infant illness and discomfort

Cold was usually considered to be the most likely explanation of an infant’s illness or discomfort. A fellow teacher told me that the reason why her three-month-old baby developed a fever was because she bathed her baby at night when she got back from work. There was a similar explanation from a friend who said her baby had a cold again because she had bathed her at night. When my toddler son had a cold, friends, in-laws and others provided various theories about how he must have gotten cold, such as having walked on a cold floor with only socks covering his feet.

Discomfort was first explained by cold exposure. If my son was irritable, not sleeping or sleeping too much, cried or had a runny nose, the immediate

explanation was that he was cold. One day I visited a sea level town, where the climate was tropical not temperate like where we lived in Guatemala City and took my son with me. The town had a tropical climate, a strong sun and the temperature was 40˚C. In the evening, my son had red cheeks, which I said were due to

sunburn. My in-laws disagreed and said he was burnt from the cold coming back to the city. On another occasion when he choked on some milk because he drank it too fast, I was told the milk, being a cold food, had given him a cough. Because of the dangers believed to be involved, exposing an infant to cold food in the city or highlands was avoided. However, because of my differing beliefs, my sons had been, in their view, regularly exposed to the cold. I therefore hoped that I might disprove their theory that the cold causes illness. They explained my sons seeming ability to cope with cold as the result of being different, whereas not all infants would be as able to cope with it.

One day I wanted to go out with my son after it had stopped raining, but my husband’s aunt disapproved because she thought I would get sick. My mother-in-law, who was becoming used to my strange behaviour, backed me up saying, “she goes out in all sorts and nothing happens to her . . . And look how healthy the baby is!” If my sons were visibly happy having little clothing on, this was not taken as evidence they did not feel the cold, and I would be told to cover them up because they did not know it would harm them. The local beliefs I encountered invariably

42 stood strong despite all evidence to the contrary. I had failed, despite so much effort, to change anyone’s opinion about how vulnerable infants are to cold.