African wooden dolls makes infertile women fertile legend

Infertility treatments in Ghana Africa take the form of Akuaba  African wooden dolls  believed to have the power to make infertile women have children.

Akuaba African Fertility Doll

Akuaba African Wooden Dolls for Infertility 

Many infertile women in Africa consider that, without children, their lives are without hope.

Infertility affects women from around the world and in many cases, the social stigmas of being a barren woman are almost too much to bear.

In Ghana and other parts of the world, a high priority is placed on women to have children. Infertility issues can cause distress since children are seen as a means of preserving family names and traditions.

Married women are expected to produce a child within their first year of marriage and failure to do so can create feelings of guilt and shame causing difficult situations in the home.

When a woman is infertile, a number of factors, including poor health, hormonal changes and even the supernatural, can cause it.

Fertility beliefs are passed down from their ancestors in the African world. Akuaba fertility dolls are responsible for governing birth and protecting the mom-to-be from infertility and bad luck.

If women want a boy then the akuaba doll has a moon-shaped disc for a face, carved with a delicate nose, close-set almond-shaped eyes and arched eyebrows. The thin neck leads into a cylindrical body with two small breasts and horizontal arms without hands.

Women hoping for girls, the akuaba doll takes another form. The small head is flat, narrow and rectangular and in the lower part, the face has round eyes and arching brows. On the top of the head, strands of hair stick up, and the doll has a cylindrical body but no arms.

Marriage without children is considered as a failure. Uganda is one of the countries in the African infertility belt that stretches across central Africa from the Tanzania in the east to Gabon in the west. In this region, a phenomenon described as barrenness amid plenty refers to the fact that infertility is often most prevalent where fertility rates are also high.

Despite their importance, infertility prevention and care often remains neglected public health issues, or at least they rank low on the priority list, especially for low-income countries that are already under population pressure. Low fertility is becoming more common worldwide, particularly in aging populations and many urban settings where women are having their first babies at older ages.

African wooden dolls makes infertile women fertile legend has it

Did you know?
After one year of having unprotected sex, about 15 percent of couples within childbearing years are unable to get pregnant. WHO demographic studies from 2004 have shown that in Africa, more than 30% of women aged 25–49 suffer from secondary infertility, the failure to conceive after an initial first pregnancy.