Beth's January 2015 Haiti Trip Day 7

Haiti Day 7 Thursday January 29th 2015

Today was a good more relaxing day, but I am getting a bit tired of the long Yukon trips.  Dr. Steve, Camille, Genette, Magdella and our interpreter Frankie and I drove 2 hours to Cabestro to meet with 30 local Matrones to educate them about the upcoming Matrone 20 week free education program MFH will be starting this spring.   They all seemed eager for the program and it will really help to educate these traditional birth attendants (who surprisingly were 3/4 men and most elderly).   They will know about how to have a clean, safe birth and each will be given clean birth kits. Plus they will be encouraged to recognize the signs of danger in pregnancy and birth and to help their women transfer the 2 hours to Hinche to be seen at the hospital. They also teach how many cultural traditions can endanger moms and babies and why they should discourage things like rubbing charcole on the umbilical cord(can lead to neonatal teatnus and having new moms sit over a steaming pot to cleanse themselves(can lead to severe burns) 

 On the same site is a building that MFH is hoping to turn into a birthcenter in the next year.  It would enable the local women to have a safe place to birth and would be staffed by MFH midwives and volunteers. There was a good article about it published this week.  http://www.catholicvirginian.org/archive/2015/2015vol91iss7/pages/article2.html

This afternoon we took motor taxies to visit the local girls orphanage at Mason Fortunae.  The girls were all very sweet and showed us their crazy jumping rope skills.  We played them some music and danced around and just had a good time with them.

 Fresh little bananas and mangos from the trees on the property.  So much better than what we get at home!