Maternal House /
Casas Maternas

For many indigenous women in Bolivia, the possibility of giving birth in a hospital is far from their reality. In addition to access, there is a no less ethnographic root that has to do with their culture: Is traditional medicine respectful of their worldview? This question is repeated in many parts of Latin America and in the case of the highland country, it has important consequences, since 42% of the deaths that occur during childbirth are precisely due to procedures at home. Changing that paradigm was one of the motivations of the Chilean architect Cazú Zegers, who, commissioned by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), designed the “Maternal Houses” project in Bolivia in 2020, an initiative that sought to implement places that would allow women access a birth that respects ancestral traditions within health facilities.