The first Safe Birth training follow up

One of our goals this month is to get around to each of the churches that sent ladies to the Safe Birth training at the end of October.  I am hoping to meet up with them in a more personal setting to touch base and see what their feedback is from the training, what skills they have been able to use, what they are struggling with and answer any questions.

Today was my first chance to get to sit down with a few of them!

Meet…the Safe Birth team from Pastor Gaston's church:

(left to right) Mickerline, Ginette, Celiane & Jeannise, known as “FiFi”

So, I opened our time together by asking them how things were going.

Celiane, sitting in the middle, quickly, but timidly raised her hand. Her face lit up as she stated that 8 days after the training...she delivered her niece’s baby. Wow!  

C's niece considered going to the hospital, but didn’t because she was scared (the hospitals here are known for extremely rude & disrespectful treatment of patients) Then her labor progressed too far for her to travel safely. Celiane said that she was nervous, but remembered everything, even how to deliver the placenta which was "a little challenging". It was her first time even attending a birth!! She glowed as she shared the details of bringing her “great niece” into the world.

Two other women had been using their blood pressure monitoring skills. Ginette helped her neighbor who had mild blood pressure issues. Mickerline said that her mom (Ginette) wasn’t feeling well, so she took her blood pressure and found it was dangerously high according to what we had taught. She knew to take her mom to the doctor immediately & said that the MD confirmed the BP reading, gave her medicine & now she is much better.

We talked further about various health issues, continuing skills development, and teamwork. Then I prayed over them and asked God to go before them with wisdom and protection as ministry opportunities arose. One of their greatest concerns is that while they are willing to serve, they have seen others in their culture blamed & killed when something went wrong - even when it couldn’t be helped. They know not to offer any care beyond their basic training and only as a last resort for women that would otherwise be delivering alone. Yet they boldly trust God with the fact that every circumstance of providing help may put them at risk for retaliation.

Please keep all of these brave women in your prayers!

What a fabulous follow up. I can't wait to hear what the other 60 women have been up to now...

Rebecca