Cheryl is apparently having trouble getting enough bandwidth to send any pictures, so these journal entries will have to suffice for now.
November 2, 2011 Fort Resolu with Ewins Joseph and Gladias
This morning, Ewins Joseph came to take me to his village. Ewins is 27yo, a driven, visionary, hard-working, English speaking leader. His pastor accompanied him, driving the motorcycle to the Midwives for Haiti house. Gladias, my 25 yo translator, followed shortly. We rode on motorcycle taxis to a countryside village where I was met by 10 traditional birth attendants (TBAs): 9 women and one elderly man.
The 10 of them, Gladias, Ewins, and I sat in a circle talking about TBAs in Haiti and the work they do. I heard wonderful stories about how each midwife got her/his start. I will transcribe my audio and pick out some of those tales when I have more time. In summary, most of the TBAs followed a grandmother or grandfather or a mother into the calling. Many were told, “When I die, I want someone to do this work.” I did hear one woman’s assertion that she learned her skills through spirit and dreams, but not through apprenticeship. It had something to do with the grandfather going under the water for eight months.
It was a wonderfully strong group of good friends there. They meet every Thursday to discuss things of interest to them. Three of the TBAs were obvious leaders in the group: younger, literate, outspoken, and chosen by the others to speak for them. I had to encourage the older TBAs to share their stories and although a little shy at first, they willingly participated in the sharing.
What drew us together was the shared feeling that a good birth going well is a wonderful thing, and that a birth going badly was very, very sad.
I heard two funny stories about being TBAs delivering goats (chabrits), pigs, and cows. I can’t wait to transcribe those! There was a lot of laughing. I chimed in, “I’ve never assisted an animal during a difficult birth, but I did see a baby calf, still wet and attached to the umbilical cord, struggle to get up on all fours to nurse and then getting repeatedly kicked to the ground by its mother!”
I asked how many children Haitian women want. One answered that some women want 12 or 13 and that those women believe it is up to God. I asked if most women want that many and there was laughing all around. The laughing was an obvious “no” answer to that! We talked briefly about family planning and the general consensus is that this is something most Haitian women want. I was relieved to learn that these services are offered free of charge.
I heard stories about breech births, twins, transverse lie and other malpresentations. However, I did not hear very much about childbirth tragedies. I think our conversation was on somewhat delicate grounds and getting a little deeper may have been premature.
All ten voices united loudly and clearly to tell me that they had hopes for a community birth center. The TBAs will attend any mother that needs their help although many of the families do not pay. The TBAs tell me they will go out in the hot sun, the rain, the night… sometimes falling on the road as they try to get to the laboring mother’s home. They tell me something I already know: you cannot do this work unless you love it. But, they do hope for support. A list of wished for supplies was written, read, and discussed. I brought the list back with me: sterile gloves and gauze, towels, alcohol and betadine, bulb syringes, cord blades and clamps, thermometers, blood pressure cuffs, measuring tapes, scrubs, dopplers, scales, walky-talkies, and headlamps. One of the more touching requests was for eyeglasses because some of the elderly TBAs are getting old and do not see very well.
I am a little overwhelmed. I tell them that I will share their stories and that I will post their concerns on the internet. I hope my message will find the right people to lend support to their aspirations to make birth a safer and better situation for the women in Haiti. I think they wish I were a pot of gold, but I am not.
They say they will pray for me and I tell them I will pray for them, too.