medical record keeping, brazilian style
A page from the records of Dona Bela, a traditional midwife in Lencois who died about 10 years ago. According to the hash marks, she caught 1120 babies over 60-some years of practice.
And not a single maternal or fetal mortality.
How to verify this? I'm not sure yet...but I do think in such a small town, the gossip mill would keep one honest.