I am woman....but I wish my man was here!

I am at the end of my one month survival in Haiti without Don.... not soon enough! I have achieved some things in my 50 years, but one thing has not changed......I HATE machines, I am not mechanical, I do not want to be. I have been shown how to change oil, tires, etc on a car and I kind of watch..... I do not want to know. One of the biggest hurdles for me here is being in charge of the mechanical 'stuff' that is just a part of living in Haiti. The battery inverter, generator, and......gas range : / We ran out of propane this week so Jean got me more, hooked it up (good thing I never could have, I would have thought it was going to blow up) but I needed to start the pilot lights. The ones for the burners -no problem but the oven, Take this off - move this - unscrew these screws -hold down count to 30........I did it! We will have the traditional home made pizza for supper and Corrie baked a cake!

The generator that is another thing. Lost power this morning, the batteries were dead and I NEEDED coffee before our 11 mile run, I was not happy. Battery on the generator was dead, but I put on the charger ( I watched John when he showed me, really I did!) but nothing! I gave up on the idea for coffee and decided I had better get ready to go run... DON GET HERE THE GENERATOR IS ALL YOURS!!!!!!

Sisters of Charity

I do not have pictures to go with this post. They do not allow pictures to be taken inside the Sisters of Charity's Children's hospital. I will do my best to paint a picture with words. Cribs lining the walls and down the middle of each of the several rooms. It is dark, but clean, plastic flowers hang from the ceilings, giving the children who are lying in the cribs something beautiful to look at. Crying and more crying. Sisters and volunteers holding, feeding,bathing, loving, changing, children. Children, the very sick ones are here, the ones whose parents have lost hope, or just do not know what to do - are here. I wandered into a room where a one year old caught eyes with me, her pleading cries and out stretched arms - I could not resist, she was in my arms in a breaths time. She clung to me, weighing almost nothing. Her hands clasped around my bag hung on my shoulder -tight. She put her thumb into her mouth and went to sleep but not before looking deep at me into some part of me I did not want touched. Shane had walked into the same room and he too had a child in his arms to comfort, we looked at each other with what was left of our reserve. we gave into the tears. So much hurt, and suffering. These are the lucky ones. Millions more like them out there in Haiti, hungry, sick, alone, Someone hold them.

today- Child Development class

Joyful! That is what today was! So grateful for this calling!

making choices

I know before I write this that some reading will be offended. It is easy to judge when your life does not reflect, in anyway the life of the one you are judging. Women in Haiti do not have a voice about sex. Sexual assault is not against the law- in fact the idea of sexual assault is translucent. We are wanting to empower women, with their health, their education and their financial situation. Yes we hand out birth control. Today Jonna taught Child Development class and spoke on spacing the birth of children, for health reasons for the mom and baby and other children that there might already be. Lots of questions - and many asking for condoms! We would say "bravo"! We want them to take responsibility for their reproduction as best as they can. It was exciting! So before you jump all over me for this - consider THEIR life.

Jinnetts birth

Many of the women we have the honor to take care of at the Women's Center are single. Many have very little voice and control over their lives - including their reproduction. Jinnette is special because she comes from an 'intact family'. The call came last night around 7:00 it was her husband calling Beth to let her know he was bringing his wife to the center, she was in labor. Beth first thought it was the guard from the WC calling because it is so unusual to have a husband involved. This is Jinnette's fifth child, and because she has done this before she knew to get to the WC before there were no "machines" available, even though she was not in hard labor. ( a machine - a tap tap; the mass transit of Haiti, colorful pick-ups with a cover over the back. You tap tap on the side when you want off. They are all but impossible to find at night) she continued to labor very nicely and at 11:03 last night she delivered a baby boy (of course no girls since I arrived!) I love this picture of Jinnette and her husband, he is so happy!

I

Thursdays -Love them!

This is the women that did not make it to the clinic.......baby born outside in the dirt! pa bon. All is well, she and baby were rushed inside the clinic and cared for. Baby was bathed and started nursing in no time. This mother tested positive for Hep b so we were able to treat her baby so he will not be effected by it. This picture is was getting a postpartum check by Beth, one of the many perks of having your baby at Heartline (or out front) is the continued care. For the next year she will be part of the Child Development class where she will receive a meal, and check ups on the baby and teaching about ---child development : ))

The other pictures are of our lovely pregnant women. Each Thursday they come and are weighed, and vitals taken. They are given a full prenatal once a month until 32 weeks then every two weeks, then every week starting at 36 weeks. Lab work is maintained, HGB is

monitored.

The women in the purple dress (holding her side) had a blood pressure of 200/135

and a HGB of 6. she has missed class six times - shows that she is not taking her vitamins and iron that we give out. It is very sad that we had to tell her because she is so high risk we could not deliver her at our clinic and that she needed to go to Doctors Without Borders Hospital right away. We sent a photo copy of her prenatal records with her. She cried. it is a very serious situation and I am sure if not for the knowledge she has received through our program she would have planned to birth at home unattended, for her that could have been deadly.

We have set the protocol for the women that if they miss more then three meetings then they will be removed from the program. Might sound harsh, but we have a long waiting list of women wanting in, and all we ask is for them to be there on Thursdays get their vitamins and iron and take some responsibility for their health. These women love it, they are blessed their babies are blessed and we are blessed!!!!!

Birth

As a midwife birth is very invigorating. It requires a lot of energy but is such an adrenalin rush. that rush helped me to keep moving through the night. We had lost EDH (electricity) earlier in the evening. The inverter was not working at the birth center, or the generator. We used flash lights. Sun came up before the baby was born, but it was still quite dark in the room and of course hot without fans. The mother was just 17, she had delivered a still born just a year ago. Knowing how young she was and the emotional condition of having lost a baby, she was given much attention and love. Beth stayed right with her and later Paige came to help. It was a beautiful uncomplicated delivery. A baby boy born at 8:13 a.m. weighing 7lbs 4 oz. We had prenatal's that day so we just continued on, caring for the mom and dong prenatal's. By the end of the day I was really shot, and my kids would tell you I was not very nice! I fixed dinner, took two Ibuprofen and went to bed at 7:00! so grateful for a healthy baby boy born at Heartline Birth center!!!!!