New Birth Center in Haiti

This was in my inbox this morning. If anyone is interested in staffing a new birth center in Haiti that will treat the women there with the care and respect they deserve, please contact the people listed below.


Hi, All -
The person organizing this is my preceptor, Jesica Dolin. Jennifer Guillardo runs the birth center I work at, Andaluz Waterbirth Center. I am hoping to put in a couple of weeks over the summer in Haiti, as well. Please pass this email along to midwives/nurses/docs and midwifery/med/nursing students you know.

Best,

Jocelyn

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO MIDWIVES, NURSES, DOCS WHO BELIEVE IN NATURAL BIRTH, etc.
I am a licensed midwife at Andaluz Waterbirth Center in Portland, OR. (www.waterbirth. net) The founder of our birth center, Jennifer Gallardo, is currently in Haiti, volunteering as a midwife in the LD&D at the hospital. She says:
"Just saw a 15 year old be brutalized by 5 'midwives' and one doctor. They held her down, covered her mouth, slapped her, held her legs opened while she struggled, cut a huge episiotomy, and pulled baby out. All the while yelling at her." She has only been there a couple days and already has many stories like that one. Prior to starting the birth center in Oregon in 1999, she ran a birth center in Guatemala for 5 years, and also attended hospital births in Guatemala. She says she has never seen women treated so horribly in labor. And of course, this is a place where infant and maternal mortality is very high as well.

She has found a big house to rent that has five rooms we could use for birth rooms, two bathrooms, and space for staff housing. It has running water, and is in a relatively safe area. (I am planning on going to work at it with my infant son.) She is moving forward with opening a birth center there, and we need staff!

We need:
1. Midwives to come volunteer (doctors and labor and delivery nurses also welcome)

2. Students who want to pay tuition for apprenticeship there (as is often the case with birth centers in area of need - the funds must come from somewhere, and the clients cannot pay enough to cover operating costs)

3. Folks to spread the word about this

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN STAFFING THIS BIRTH CENTER IN HAITI, PLEASE EMAIL jesicadolin@ yahoo.com

In dedication to bettering the lives of women, babies, and all those who draw breath on this planet,Jesica

What to Talk About?

I have been utterly swamped. In trying to find yet more ways to support the family, alas, this blog and our birth website, organic-birth.com, have been neglected. We have been through a rather rough patch. My husband has developed more health issues and we've been going through all sorts of tests for him. His dad, my wonderful father-in-law, passed away on February 2. Needless to say, it has been a bit stressful around here.

In the meantime, I have seen posts about cesarean rates by state, breastfeeding once again being attacked by Facebook and a possible resulting lawsuit, and a study showing that elementary school kids in Glasgow overwhelmingly believe that it is okay for husbands to strike wives "if the wife did something to deserve it," like have an affair (admittedly bad, but still), or was late getting dinner on the table. That is just the tip of the iceberg. Sheesh. What's a blogger to do? With so many different topics screaming to be written about, how can I fit it in my busy day?

I am working on more book reviews and an art project review for our website. I hope to have at least one posted by the end of this week. I also posted a copy of my article that was published in the Winter 2009 issue of Midwifery Today. You can read it here.