Day six in haiti:
The day started with two mom’s laboring in the birth room and 40 women holding their babies and singing together in beautiful morning song at MamaBaby Haiti.
We created a circle of moms and dads with babies three months and younger, pulling them out of the line of waiting to be weighed and seen for postpartum care.
The circle group was fun and successful. Dads and moms introduced themselves and asked questions. There was much interaction, dialogue, and laughter. Myths were dispelled (how about we don’t put sugar on a baby’s tongue when it is white?), important questions were answered (how long can pumped breastmilk remain good without refrigeration?), and advice was given by midwife Rose, midwife Jennifer, and mother’s in the circle.
Because of the circle we were able to help a mom whose six day old baby had not nursed since birth and another whose three day old baby refused to nurse.
Everyone was busy working until 3:pm…. a third and fourth baby born, prenatals and postpartums done, walls in the volunteer hallway painted a bright golden yellow.
We piled into a tap tap and headed to the Citadel, an hour drive and a hike up a mountain to a huge fortress perched so high you can see mountains beyond mountains to the ocean and more.
After much hiking we sat atop a 130 foot wall anchored on mountain rocks along a cliff hundreds of feet high. I sat there for a good while feeling the dizzying height, a gentle breeze, a grandiose view, and peaceful silence.
We arrived home at 9:pm to find a fifth baby born from a mom who walked five hours from Port Francois to deliver a breech baby safely into the MamaBaby midwife’s hands.