Disaster strikes. We’ve all seen it on the news. Sometimes it’s close to home, like the Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and sometimes it feels more distant, as in the tsunami in Japan. Every year 13 million people will become refugees and 20 million will be displaced within their own countries. Women and children constitute as 80% of the world’s refugees and displaced people. Circle of Health International (COHI) is working to see that when disaster strikes, some of the most vulnerable, the pregnant mothers and newborns, are well cared for in these times of need.
Recently they launched a fundraiser to get midwife Karen Feltham, CNM to Haiti to help at a birth center. Karen’s ten day trip is planned to HCM Maternity Clinic in Fond Parisien, Haiti, an earthquake-affected region. The birth center is staffed by two Haitian midwives and serves more than 2,000 women a year. The midwives provide high quality care and effectively manage routine births, but outcomes for mothers and babies could be improved with additional training and support. I am pleased to say that they met their goal early on on the campaign, because of readers like you who understand the need of the work that Karen is doing to protect mothers and babies.
But the sad fact remains that Haiti is not the only place where we are having problems, nor will it be the last natural disaster. Nearly 400,000 women will die each year from pregnancy-related causes. 99% of these deaths will occur in developing countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). For each woman who dies, 20 others will suffer from serious complications. In poor countries, a mother’s death leaves her newborn at risk of dying as well. The need for quality and accessible reproductive health care in crisis settings is urgent. In areas where conflict and turmoil is rampant, nurses and midwives are the primary reproductive health care providers. They provide up to 80% of direct patient care around the world every day. So, COHI is continuing to raise money to fund more missions for Karen and midwives like her. Please consider donating your time or money, even just a $1 to help make birth safe for mothers everywhere, even in the worst of situations.
So a recap of what you can do to help COHI help mothers affected by natural disasters:
- Consider a donation, even a $1
- Continue watching Circle of Health International (COHI)
- Follow COHI on Facebook
- Keep up-to-date with the campaign
As COHI says, “Midwives, nurses and other health care providers are working night and day around the world to help women and children in crisis settings. It is not a simple path they tread, yet slowly and deliberately they continue, each day, with each birth, to enact their belief in midwifery through peace. But they cannot do it without your help and support.”