Laxmi had seen childbirths in her village, assisted midwives, and helped expecting mothers. But she was unable to understand the possible reasons for her own ordeal—excessively swollen feet and hands, protruding eyeballs and loss of appetite. She suffered it all. Eight months pregnant, this woman in her mid-twenties used to live alone during the day as her husband worked in the field. “I thought we were being punished for our bad deeds; nobody faces such troubles during pregnancy,” she says. She had developed an unusual habit: “I started liking the taste of red bricks and sand; didn’t know what was happening to me.”