"No clean clothes are provided for use in the confinement, and no hot water. Fresh cow-dung or goats' droppings, or hot ashes, however, often serve as heating agents when the patient's body begins to turn cold." The striking tone of "Mother India" and especially in the selection above is that childbirth is seen as something deserving few valuable resources. Raising a child takes an incredible amount of energy, and seeing that the infant mortality rate is so high in some Indian societies, it makes sense that people would not be investing many "expensive" resources into in child bearing. A child, anyhow, should be strong and strong enough to serve their fathers. As the introduction goes, "Men must have sons to serve their souls." The question remains: Why are dung and ashes, literally the refuse of the society, used in child
8 
)
= 562
= 2 (250 words per page)
