(Ate Elsa, one of the midwives on staff here, with one of our anniversary signs...ooops typo! The sign is suppose to read 17,000! haha)
Today marks the 15th anniversary of Mercy Maternity Center, the charity-based birth center that I volunteer at here in Davao. MMC exists to provide compassion-based maternal healthcare to women living in severe poverty conditions. Mercy also serves as a clinical training site for students desiring to study midwifery within the context of a developing country. The primary focus of Mercy Maternity Center is to use midwifery skills as a way to show God's kindness and love to people in a practical and relevant way. I had the privilege of being on shift when the 17,000th baby was caught! Yes folks, 17,000 babies have been born here at MMC.
(l-r: my awesome supervisor Jobee, me, staff midwife Jane, a volunteer named Holly, staff midwife Mai-Mai, and a student from the area who is doing a short residency here)
17,000 new little souls born into the arms of 17,000 mamas! Amazing.
We are having a big anniversary party Friday night! May the Lord continue to bless all the midwives as they strive to serve the mamas here in Davao with Jesus' love and compassion.
And here I am doing a health teaching during prenatals last week on fetal development. We have prenatals every day of the week (mon-fri) with prayer/worship time, health teaching, and routine prenatal check-ups.
I passed around this tiny model of a 14 week old fetus. The younger women thought it was really cool. The older women refused to touch it! I don't know if it freaked them out or what! :)
And afterward doing prenatals.
I love doing prenatals. It's the time you can really get into the mamas lives, teach them about their health and the health of their baby, and really set the foundation for a good pregnancy, labor and birth. Just talking, connecting, hanging out and showing them how to feel the position of their baby, listen to their baby's heartbeat...it's such a privilege...even if language barriers do occasionally get in the way! :)
*~Happy Anniversary MMC!~*
(l-r: my awesome supervisor Jobee, me, staff midwife Jane, a volunteer named Holly, staff midwife Mai-Mai, and a student from the area who is doing a short residency here)17,000 new little souls born into the arms of 17,000 mamas! Amazing.
We are having a big anniversary party Friday night! May the Lord continue to bless all the midwives as they strive to serve the mamas here in Davao with Jesus' love and compassion.
And here I am doing a health teaching during prenatals last week on fetal development. We have prenatals every day of the week (mon-fri) with prayer/worship time, health teaching, and routine prenatal check-ups.
I passed around this tiny model of a 14 week old fetus. The younger women thought it was really cool. The older women refused to touch it! I don't know if it freaked them out or what! :)
And afterward doing prenatals.I love doing prenatals. It's the time you can really get into the mamas lives, teach them about their health and the health of their baby, and really set the foundation for a good pregnancy, labor and birth. Just talking, connecting, hanging out and showing them how to feel the position of their baby, listen to their baby's heartbeat...it's such a privilege...even if language barriers do occasionally get in the way! :)
*~Happy Anniversary MMC!~*
2 comments:
Happy Anniversary to MMC, and congratulations Beth on being there when the 17,000th baby was born!
See you in the summer!
Kerri
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