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Women Deliver 50
After being selected as a finalist from hundreds of maternal health solutions, your votes helped Midwives For Haiti earn a spot on this year's Women Deliver 50. Midwives For Haiti is honored by this recognition as one of the 50 "most inspiring ideas and solutions that deliver for girls and women," alongside incredible organizations worldwide.  | |
Photo credit: Cheryl Hanna-Truscott
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Read more about how the organization has grown from the needs of a community and one woman's dream, in Nadene Brunk's blog for Women Deliver.
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Volunteer
Midwives For Haiti is still accepting volunteer applications for trips from May through the end of October. Interested midwives, L&D nurses, or ObGyn physicians should visit our volunteer page to learn more about serving this summer or fall. You can also view specific dates for which volunteers are needed in Hinche.
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Melissa Myers, L&D nurse, spent a week with our students and graduates in February.
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We are so grateful for our "annual" volunteers, and we would love to get your trip on the calendar to meet Class Five! Contact us to schedule your 2012 trip.
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Teri Nicholson, CNM, spent time serving in Ste. Therese's L&D ward during her trip in January.
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Interested in learning more? Volunteer trip journals are a great place to start!
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Men anpil chay pa lou.
Many hands make the load lighter.
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Greetings!
After spending two months in Hinche, I am moved by the depth of need our midwives are filling for women in their communities. In particular, I was privileged to get a glimpse of one woman whose life has been changed by the skilled care she received from Midwives For Haiti graduates.
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Martine* (second from left) stopped to thank midwives Thelemaque (left) and Magdala (second from right), and driver Ronel (far right) for intervening to save her life.
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Riding in the Jeep on the way back from Maissade, we were stopped by a young woman on a motorcycle. Like most people in Hinche, she recognized the pink Jeep, and wanted a chance to thank Magdala and Thelemaque, our Mobile Clinic midwives.
Martine* had been coming to our Mobile Clinic at Savane Haleine for prenatal care. At her most recent visit, her blood pressure was dangerously high. Magdala and Thelemaque knew she needed immediate care. They referred her to Ste. Therese hospital, and transported her there that day.
Because these midwives recognized the woman's life-threatening complication and because our midwife graduates were on staff at the hospital that day, Martine
and her baby survived. Martine still has numbness in her face from the stroke she suffered, but she has lived to see her healthy baby grow.
When we got back into the Jeep, Magdala turned to me and said, "You just don't know how many lives this program saves." She is right; it is impossible to measure the personal impact that each of these trained midwives has on the lives of her patients and on the health of her community.
Magdala is speaking to all of us, who have given time, funds or thoughts to this mission: You just don't know how many lives your contributions are saving.
Gratefully,
Nadene Brunk
Founder & Executive Director
*(Name has been changed.)
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Matwon Outreach
Genuine partnership is a core value of Midwives For Haiti: our programs arise from listening to the needs of local Haitian communities. Over the past year, we've listened to local Matwons (Haiti's traditional birth attendants) express a need for more education and more supplies to prevent women in their communities from dying in childbirth. With the support of our Mobile Clinic midwives and North American volunteers, a Matwon outreach program is underway in two villages.
As of February, Midwives For Haiti graduates and occasional volunteers will provide monthly training
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Matwons (traditional birth attendants) from Fort Resolu. (Photo credit: Cheryl Hanna-Truscott)
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sessions and supplies to two villages neighboring Hinche: Rivage and Fort Resolu. Later this year, program graduates Genette Thelesmond, clinical preceptor, and Magdala Jean, Mobile Clinic midwife, will also begin a more formal training session for traditional birth attendants in these villages, supplementing materials provided by Haiti's MSPP.
Outreach this month has been carried out by volunteers, with 10-20 Matwons in attendance at each session. So far, the Matwons have been trained on the significance of monitoring blood pressures and how to do so, in order to promote referral for symptoms of eclampsia, the most common cause of death for women in Haiti.
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The community of Rivage gave Jessica Jordan and Nadene Brunk a warm welcome at the first meeting about Matwon outreach.
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Student Progress
Now in the tenth week of instruction, class five students already have one exam under their belts. This first test covered curriculum modules: "Professional Role of Midwives", "Basic Health Skills", "Pregnancy", and part of "Normal Labor and Birth".
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Student Lerbour Micheline learns from a cervical dilation model. (Photo credit: Melissa Myers)
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Students have become well-acquainted with charting as they conclude their ninth week of clinical practice, rotating between antepartum, intrapartum, and postpartum settings at Ste. Therese Hospital and on Mobile Clinics.
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Student Louis Marie Melonne keeps careful record of patients seen at Ste. Therese.
(Photo credit: Melissa Myers)
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It is not too late to organize your medical practice, community, church, or business around supporting the education of a Class Five student. Learn more about the sponsorship program and the unique connection to Haiti that this type of giving allows your group to experience.
Be sure to"meet" the new class-
check out their profiles on our website.
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Midwives For Haiti
7130 Glen Forest Drive, Suite 101
Richmond, Virginia 23226
www.MidwivesForHaiti.com
midwivesforhaiti@gmail.com | (804) 662-6060, Ext. 4105
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