Navigating Birth: Biomedicine, Sufism, and the Cultural Experiences of Childbearing in Lakshadweep Islands, India

Lakshadweep, an isolated island chain in the Arabian Sea, India, is home to a mainly Sunni-Shafi Muslim community that is deeply underlied by Sufism and practices a matrilocal system. This study explores the nexus of biomedicine, religion, and spirituality in childbirth practices among island women in Lakshadweep. It studies how the spiritual influence of Sheikh Mohammed Kasim Valiya Thangal, a Sufi legend, interweaves with the medicalized childbirth setting at Indira Gandhi Hospital, Kavaratti. According to local belief, Valiya Thangal blessed the women of Kavaratti with painless delivery, a legacy that persists in shaping contemporary birthing experiences.

This ethnographic research observed the experiences of 10 women in labor room, alongside in-depth interviews with healthcare professionals, Dais, ANM and ASHA workers, and traditional healers. It reveals how sacred practices of drinking Shifa water and ZamZam water, eating sand from the Maqbara of Valiya Thangal, and making 'Nercha' to various Sufi legends coexist with medical interventions. Mawlids, Maala, and Baiths (hymns) and recitations of duʿāʾ and Dhikr are actively interweaning into the labor experience, with Dais and ASHA workers facilitating the overlap of spiritual and medical domains. Dais use 'Mariyam foo' to reduce pain and usually connect the birthing span with tidal patterns. These insights indicate the intersection of spiritual and environmental notions within hospitalized settings.

This research locates the labor room as an interstice between biomedicine, religion, and spirituality. Medical specialists, traditional/spiritual healers, health workers, and birthing women navigate these converging domains, which indicates how childbirth is culturally and spiritually embedded within the specific context of the island. Conclusively, this paper underscores how various cultural norms, spiritual beliefs, and local understanding fashion the childbearing experiences of women, how this leads to a distinctive healing realm that contests the biomedical hegemony and makes it an intersecting field of cultural negotiation and resilience.