Improving the reproductive health of local women has been a lifelong passion for Silvia Flores. Born in Durango, Flores became one of the first women in Mexico to be educated as a registered nurse. She graduated from the University of Durango on a full scholarship and with a specialty in obstetrics. Today, she is one of Mexico’s foremost advocates of family planning, sex education, women’s health and education against domestic violence. Besides her Centro de Desarrollo clinic in Ajijic, where she sees patients daily, she extends her experience to the Tepehua Community Center in Chapala, gives classes in local schools and advises engaged couples under the auspices of the Catholic Church. She took time from her busy life last week to talk to Jeanne Chaussee about her career.
Why did you choose to study nursing and obstetrics?
I was offered a full scholarship through university. It was at a time when nursing was just becoming a real profession in Mexico. Up until then (the early 1970s) nurses were often considered to be not more than doctors’ maids. And there weren’t a lot of professional studies open to women at that time.
How did you end up in this part of Mexico with your own clinic?
I married a dentist in 1974 (Flores has been divorced for more than 20 years but remains friends with her ex husband) and we moved to San Pedro Tesistan on Lake Chapala. It soon became clear that the midwife there was not using decent hygiene. She even smoked during the deliveries. Women were ending up with bad infections and other serious problems that were avoidable. I got busy and began training midwives from several villages in better methods of pre-natal care, hygiene, delivery methods and post-natal check-ups. These midwives actually became licensed by the state. But no matter what many of these village women were having way too many children.
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