Is there a stigma for women who get pregnant outside of marriage?
There is. Here in Iban language we would call it as Tinggan Adat (?). This means that they go against the Adat (customs) of the Ibanese people. If a woman is pregnant without being married to a man, we would make her bathe in pig’s blood. This is because we want to ward any bad things happening to their paddy crops. This could affect our crops too. The ritual occurs in the river. We would slaughter the pig in the river and make her bathe there. I’ve never seen this before. I’ve only heard stories of it.
However nowadays when it comes to contraceptives, we don’t use condom here. Most women here use injections / medication instead. It’s far for us to buy condoms anyway. It’s all the way in the Pasar (market) and it’s rather expensive.
Last time, we had to use the perahu (small boat) to go and see the doctor. If we want to go to the hospital it would be very far for us. But with the KK (Klinik Kesihatan) here, it has made things easier for us as it is much closer to us compared to the hospital. The work they (the Klinik Kerajaan) do here is very helpful because if they did not come and visit us, it would be difficult for us all. I wish they came here more often. We do not have proper transportation – some don’t even have transportation at all. Our main problem here is transportation. Sending our children to school is a problem. And when it comes to water, some people have access to water some don’t. But that highly depends on who can afford it.
