Beth's January 2015 Haiti Trip Day 3

Below is a video of the graduating Matrones singing about good handwashing tecnique.  They use a lot of songs to teach since many can not read or write.  Haiti Day 3 Sunday  January 25th,  Today we all got up early to pack 11 of us into the Yukon (at one point we had as many of 15 of us packed in!)  for a VERY bumpy 2 hour (27 mile) drive over "roads" to get to Saltadore a small village near the Dominican Republic boarder for the  gradation of the 3rd class of Matrones.   Matrones are traditional birth attendants and they deliver most of the babies in Haiti and prior to this program  they have no formal training and just learn from doing.   This 20 week program Midwives for Haiti offers teaches the basics of hand washing, and to look for signs of danger in pregnancy so they can attempt to transfer at risk women to a hospital.  Just last week one of the matrones from an earlier class recognized a woman's belly seemed to large and she found her a way to travel the 2 hours to Hinche.  Thankfully she did since she ended up having a c-section for TRIPLETS!  With out this extra training and a way to encourage them to recognize at risk patients and get them help, I don't want to even think of what would have happened for that birth.     After the rough drive through large creeks and lots of dirt and rocks,  we sat through a very hot 2 hour Catholic church service.  The best part was 3 goats kept walking up to the alter and men would run up to shoo them out.  Graduation of any sort is a huge deal in Haiti since most don't get beyond 5th grade.  The Matrone students organzied the whole cerimony themselves.  It was full of the students signing and they fed us lunch at the end before our long bumpy ride back home.