Moving soon...

Homebirth was just recently outlawed here in the Philippines, the thinking behind outlawing it was, if they make every women go to the hospital or clinic to have her baby, the infant and maternal mortality rates would hopefully go down in this country. But, the thing is the hospital and clinic fees are too expensive for most families, and many women do not want to go to the hospital. And now since the law is midwives here cannot attend homebirths, the moms just deliver the baby on their own without anyone. As you can see this law is not working out as planned here. And since us midwives have been doing prenatal checks 3 times a week we have some moms that are coming to us who’s due dates are very soon, and we cannot deliver them in their home. This is why we need to get a clinic going ASAP. Vicki, the director of Mercy In Action found a cute little house that we can convert into a temporary birth clinic until the building of the main birth center is done. I will be moving into this temporary clinic with Cecille and Emelda( Filipina  midwives) probably next week. All morning today we were cleaning the entire house inside and out, and we will be painting this weekend, then moving our stuff in. It is not far from where I am living now, probably a 12 minute Jeepney ride. It is actually on the same dirt road that one would take to get to Mercy Land, which is where the birth center is being built. Our Mercy In Action team has been making more friends with the locals, we are getting more mothers coming to us for care, and people here are starting to trust us more it seems...we just need to keep on praying!