I am with an organization called Missionary Midwives. Kara Rowley is the person in charge of the page. She contacted me asking if I would be interested in filling in for a women in Oaxaca, who was opening a birth center. The midwife that was going to be there to start it had to go back to the states quickly.
Their opening day was on January 17th. I have spent the last week training both the missionary women and Mexican Indian women the basics in vitals, prenatals skills, NNR, and emergency birth stuff. It is all new to them, although some have already given birth. They have worked very hard and are exreemly appreciative.
The c-section rate is 95% and the Oaxacan women are despairing. They want so much to have a good normal, vaginal birth and to give birth back to the families. I have spent a lot of time talking with the Mexican women, via a translator. My Spanish is O.K., but these women come from various Indian tribes and I am not catching it. So I have gotten pretty good at working with a translator. It was tiring at first.
Today we had to make a hard decision. A 15 yr old girl in labor wanted to birth at the center. She was raped and kicked out of her home. She was being taken care of by an older 78 midwife who agreed to care for her prenatally, but not the birth. So, this afternoon, at 8 cm, she was looking for a place to have her baby. I had to tell them to go to the hospital, because her risk factors were too many. I know she was disappointed. They are treated so horribly at the hospital here.
Outside of helping an older woman with blood sugar testing this afternoon, I have not done much medical stuff. I am happy to just teach the basics to the women coming to train as birth assistants.
Next week we are organizing all the new supplies donated and purchased. We desperately need shelving, but will need to wait for it to be built. The logistics of getting this birth center up and going rests mostly on Lila Quezada. She is doing a fabulous job and speaks very, very good native Mexican.
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