African Birth Collective

Amazing website!

2011-10-24T17:14:00.001-07:00

Check out one of our student's most incredible site: http://www.zenpink.org/zenPINK/Midwives_in_Africa.html If you want a greater sense of African Birth Collective's Midwifery Exchange Programs, this is a great place to start!

Crowdrise site

2011-10-24T17:10:00.000-07:00

We are in a big push to initiate construction on the Traditional Birth House in Kabar! Please contribute at this new online site and forward to all of your friends! http://www.crowdrise.com/africanbirthcollecti

2011-01-09T14:51:00.000-08:00

News from UmmSalaamah:

I am going to Ghana as CEO and Director of Midwifery for Midwives on the Move: From America to Ghana and Return.

Mission Statement:

Midwives On the Move Training Center, recognizing the disparities in both infant mortality and maternal As Salaamu Alaikum My Dear Sisters,
mortality in America, Africa and the Diaspora, provides global, practical, hands on experience, in Africa, for midwives and midwifery students of African descent and/or cultural sensitivity and competence.

The Midwives Model of Care has been demonstrated to improve outcomes. Evidence Based Care is the foundation of our training. Our student’s experience is enriched by exchanging wisdom, knowledge, skills and techniques with local, notable, experienced, traditional midwives and nurse-midwives.

Each student will be required to prepare and teach Continuing Education classes requested by the community/village midwives providing training for traditional birth attendants.

This comprehensive, community centered training is designed to improve the lives of infants, mothers and families on both sides of the Atlantic. Knowledge and caring are the tools needed to decrease infant mortality and maternal mortality in African and African Diaspora communities.

My journey begins on/or about January 18, 2011. I will be traveling to Accra, Abura Dunkwa, Abura (a village outside Cape Coast), Kumasi, and wherever the Most High directs me.

Students from the Americas will soon be able to come and share knowledge with the communities that I will be visiting.

I joyfully go to prepare a learning center to enhance the quality of life for expectant mothers worldwide.

This is a fact finding mission to secure housing and clinical sites in Abura Dunkwa. This location is near the Abura Dunkwa District Hospital that has agreed to welcome our students.

I’m delighted to share with you all that the maternity area, in this District Hospital, is run by the midwives and even though they get all the problem births in this very poor district they have a less than 10% C-section rate.

We will be developing relationships with the maternity homes in the district that feed into this hospital.

Our priorities for this fact finding mission are to set up our household in Abura Dunkwa, to establish a firm budget and secure additional, out of hospital sites where sisters can satisfy their NARM requirements, learn from the Master Midwives and bring Continuing Education, supplies and equipment to our Sisters. The support of the midwives collective is greatly appreciated.

We need: Local Transportation: Lodging: Food: Supplies: Household items: House Help: Furniture: Bedding / Linens; Refrigerator: Electricity & Water; Dishes/Glassware/Silverware; Gifts for the Midwives:
Gas Cooking Stove: Coal Pot + Pots & Pans: Generator

The traditional midwives, in Abura village, just outside of Cape Coast, have organized an ICTC chapter. They have requested: Books; Classes; BP Cuffs; Fetascopes; Ergot to stop hemmorhage; Instruction and supplies to give injections; GLOVES; Scissors/forceps/cord tie; student mattress and cover; fracture bedpans; alcohol; reading glasses; sunglasses; betadine; vitamins; neosporine; bags to carry supplies; Goats & Chickens to help feed the poorest of the poor who come to the midwives for their service.

The hospital midwives have requested: Beds; mattresses; a doplar (theirs has been broken 2 years, no money to replace it); delivery beds; medications; continuing education; sponsor 2 midwives to a midwifery conference in US.

Some of these items can be purchased here, inexpensively at the Dollar Store. I can take 6 bags free at 50 lbs each, that’s 300 lbs.

Many of the items on this list are available locally in Ghana. We are bringing a better quality of life to our Beloved Sisters and funds are greatly appreciated. $5 or $10 will make a difference.

You can support Midwives on the Move by making your contribution (no fee) via PayPal to my e-mail address: sazmidwife@aol.com (Sondra Abdullah-Zaimah).

Western Union is cheaper to send money to Ghana than it is to send within the US.

I will check my e-mail at least once a week. There is no internet access in Abura Dunkwa, but it’s only 20 min and less than a dollar to Cape Coast on public transportation.
Peace and Love, UmmSalaamah

Letter writing for childbirth legal options

2010-11-03T16:59:00.000-07:00

Send your letters before November 30, 2010 regarding the potential policy changes for midwifery practices to:

Samie Patnode, Policy Analyst
700 Summer St NE, Suite 320
Salem, OR 97301-1287
samie.patnode@state.or.us

Topics: VBAC, BREECH & TWIN HOMEBIRTH
Discussion should regard why it is safe to keep these births at home and why its a womans right to choose her birthplace and practitioner.
I have heard to write the letters factual, pointed and not too emotional. Thanks!

The Board of Direct Entry Midwifery is currently in the the administrative rulemaking process. Due to the high volume of public comment and diverse nature of the topics, the agency has extended the written public comment period by 30 days. Written comments will be accepted until 5 pm, Sunday, November 28, 2010.

new links!

2010-09-07T14:26:00.001-07:00

Here are some favorite links to organizations that I support. Any other suggestions for our site? I believe in networking!

Tostan means "breakthrough" in the West African language of Wolof. Since 1991, Tostan has brought its holistic 30-month education program to thousands of communities in ten African countries: Burkina Faso, Djibouti, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Somalia, and Sudan. www.tostan.org

With Woman was established to promote a mothers’ right to give birth in a safe and nurturing environment, and for babies to be welcomed to the world gently, in calm and loving surroundings. www.withwoman.org

Circle of Health International: Working with women and their communities in times of crisis and disaster to ensure access to quality reproductive, maternal, and newborn care. www.cohintl.org/index.html

PRO.ME.TRA is as much an organism of cultural research, medical practice, scientific research structure works as an instrument of African integration and international relations through the rehabilitation of traditional medicine, ancient religions and universal spirituality. http://www.prometra.org/index.php?&lng=en

Village Reach improves access to healthcare for remote, underserved communities around the world. We partner with governments, businesses, nonprofits, and other organizations to improve the performance and reliability of health systems in the most inaccessible and isolated communities. http://www.villagereach.org/Malawi_project.htm

Midwives for Midwives (MFM) is working to strengthen the capacity of traditional midwives to identify and meet the needs of the communities they serve. http://www.midwivesformidwives.org/whoweare.htm

Family Care International is dedicated to making pregnancy and childbirth safer around the world. They work to: ensure access to quality maternal and newborn health care, help women and girls to prevent and manage unintended pregnancy, promote the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young people and other underserved groups, and reduce the spread of HIV, especially among women and young people. http://www.familycareintl.org/en/home

Birth Without Borders seeks to bring culturally feasible medical technology and support to underprivileged indigenous communities in order to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates and increase breastfeeding rates world wide. http://www.birthwithoutborders.org/

2010-08-03T23:15:00.002-07:00

Join ICTC at the 7th International Black Midwives and Healer Conference, October 7-10, 2010 at the Hilton Long Beach and Executive Meeting Center, in Long Beach, CA -www.ictcmidwives.org

2010-08-03T23:15:00.001-07:00

A "Building with Traditional Materials"
workshop will be taught by a group
of professional Diola builders to make this dream a reality. Village resident and African Birth Collective
host Ibrahima Coly will be the
liaison between the elder builders and
the workshop participants. Coly has
been building with earth for over twenty
years in Africa and has been building
and teaching in the US during the past
five years. He is fluent in 5 languages,
and can assist workshop participants
who speak English, French, and three
of the local languages. Workshop
Dates:January 21st to February 14th,
2011. Workshop Price:$2000 USD. Register before November 1st for 10% Discount
Contact Ibrahima or Asia at 707-498-2031
awanyaa@gmail.com.

2010-06-29T20:52:00.000-07:00

New Project

2010-06-29T20:50:00.000-07:00

Help us build a Birth House for the Traditional Midwives of our Village!!
Kafountine, a fishing village on the coast of southern Senegal, has a rapidly expanding population. The only maternity clinic is not within easy walking distance for laboring women who live in neighborhoods on the outskirts of town. Although it may be possible to hire or arrange for transportation during the day, many women give birth at night when there aren't any cars available to drive them across town.
Over the years a group of women, in the predominantly Diola neighborhood known as Kabar, has nurtured an informal women’s society that shares in assisting births. For the Diola, childbirth is highly revered as sacred for the women, and not something for men of the tribe to witness. They use traditional herbal remedies and practices taught to them by their mothers and grandmothers.
Last year at a peaceful and moving gathering, the guests of African Birth Collective sat in a circle with these traditional midwives and shared information about pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, herbs, and nutrition as practiced in the developed world. The women of Kabar expressed their intention to continue their use of traditional herbs to ease labor, and they described how most homebirths occur in the bathing area behind a house on a piece of fabric spread on the ground. Once the baby is born, the mother & child are brought back into the home where they remain for one week before rejoining the community in outdoor activities. The women of Kabar made clear that this is not ideal and expressed their need for a place to give birth that is clean, warm and close to their homes.
The African Birth Collective has decided to financially sponsor this easily achievable project. With your donations we will construct an earthen structure using local traditional building methods. This enclosed space will provide the women of Kabar a centralized location for maternal care and a clean, safe place for women to have their babies. We ask you to participate in this project through your monetary contributions, and we will post progress reports on our website so that you can see the results of your generosity in the maternity center and the happy appreciative faces of the women of Kabar!

2010-05-15T20:04:00.000-07:00

Check this great slideshow from an amazing student on our last program in the Kafountine clinic of Casamance, Senegal!
http://picasaweb.google.com/eden.bertrang/Senegal2010?feat=directlink