Celebrating Moms and Midwives

I find it fitting that we celebrate International Day of the Midwife and Mother's Day just a week apart. I could quote statistics until I am blue in the face but the tagline for this year's International Day of the Midwife sums it up perfectly.

As my departure nears (just waiting on my visa now) it is exciting to think and plan about how I will be serving the women of Indonesia. I have missed catching babies!

This weekend we are celebrating Mother's Day. I can think of no better way to celebrate than to share just a few of the pictures I have of Indonesian moms and their kids...

More Than Just a Number

I spend a lot of time on this blog talking about the numbers, including this blog post and this one too. The number of women that die due to complications of pregnancy and birth. The number of children that die too young. The people of Indonesia though are much more than a number to me.

For awhile now I have followed the work of Micah Bournes, a powerful spoken word artist. I came across this video recently and it touched my heart.

Is Justice Worth It? feat. Micah Bournes from World Relief on Vimeo.

The statement that caught my attention was this, "It is one thing to wonder if someone else is worth fighting for." So many ask me why I am going to serve long-term in Indonesia. In many ways it is hard question to answer but maybe it is because they are more than a number to me and worth fighting for. While my role in Indonesia is not one that seeks to bring justice, it is one that seeks to bring relief from suffering. In many ways they are a similar task. In both you tend to lose as many if not more than are saved (or at least some days it feels that way). In both it is a never-ending battle. In both the answer to the question, "is it worth your time?" is a resounding yes. The key is in identifying with that someone else. When you see their face, hear their voice, and hold their hand during their suffering they become much more than a number.

I remember the first time this really sunk in. It was December 26th, 2004. I had been in Indonesia almost 2 years. Our first cell phone tower had been finished earlier that month and we were all excited about having cell phones that connected us with the outside world. That morning all the phones started ringing with phone calls and text messages. They told us there had been an earthquake and tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia. We turned on the one TV we had hooked up to a satellite and watched the images streaming in. I could understand what the people were saying and watching them suffer brought me to knees. It reminded me of the morning of Sept 11th, 2001, when I was also brought to my knees with grief for the American people.

That morning in 2004 I realized that in those two years of serving I had come to know and love Indonesia and her people. It brought new purpose into my work and life there. Whether I was in clinic or the hospital I learned to not just focus on the physical needs but see the patients as people and listen to their struggles and their joys. I could fill a blog post with pictures. Pictures of people who are more than a number to me. Some lived and some died. Some are of us laughing and some bring me to tears. All of them, their family, and their friends are worth being there for. 

Here are some videos and stories from Indonesia during the earthquake and tsunami. You can hear them speaking Indonesian but it is also subtitled in English.

Birth Photos from Around the World

I came across this photo slide show of birth in several places around the world recently on the New York Times web page. It has some beautiful and amazing photos! There is also an article from the photographer with more information about the photos that you can read here. 

International Women's Day

It is that time of year once again, where where we celebrate and recognize women around the world! This year the theme from the United Nations is,  “A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women.” One of the ways the day is being celebrated is through the release of a new song. In the song, 25 singers and musicians from over 20 countries come together in a unified voice. You can listen to it here:

One of my favorite books about women is Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. This fabulous book tells the story of several women around the world facing struggles and how they are turned into opportunities. For example there is a Cambodian teenager who is trapped in sex slavery who escapes and becomes a business owner, which supported family. Or there is the Ethiopian woman who struggles with devastating injuries during childbirth who goes on to become a surgeon. It is a great read -- informative and challenging!

Violence against Women in Indonesia

This post is a follow-up to the V-Day: One Million Rising post from a couple of weeks ago. In that post, I talked a bit about violence against women and how I have become more familiar with the topic. I mentioned that there are a number of ways women experience violence, one of which is rape.

There was a recent editorial written in the Jakarta Post Newspaper by an American woman living in Indonesia. She was highlighting several recent incidents in Indonesia that had happened to young women (really just girls) living there.

• First, was an 11-year-old from a family of Jakarta whose father confessed to raping her. She was found to have the same sexually transmitted disease as her father. The girl passed away from an inflammation of the brain.

• Second came the report of a 13-year-old who had been married to a 39-year-old in a Balinese Hindu ceremony. She became pregnant but the baby was born premature and died. 

• Then there was an incident in the fall of last year where Facebook was used to lure a 14-year-old. She was gang-raped and they planned to traffic her but due to media attention she was released. You can read more of the story here. 

Incidents like this occur across Indonesia on a regular basis. They happen across islands and people groups. One of the biggest risk factor is poverty. For some poverty drives families to marry off their young daughters. Sometimes they are sent away to work where they are risk for human trafficking and abuse. Others are lured by promises of cell phones, new clothes, or fees for school into a trap.

I recently came across this video on YouTube which highlights the risk young women are at and simple interventions that can help save them. I thought it was worth sharing...

V-Day: One Billion Rising

Did you know that 1 in 3 women will experience violence in their lifetime? That means over 1 billion women will be impacted by violence. That statistic shocks me but does not surprise me.

I remember when I first visited Indonesia in 2000 and I went on a village health day trip. While were were there doing prenatal care, giving immunizations to the kids etc and a young woman was brought to us. She had wounds around her wrists and ankles. She was catatonic - awake but unresponsive to us and the world around us. We were asked to bring her back to the hospital and see if we could help her. I didn't really understand what was going on until it was explained to me. The young woman had gone to work as a house maid in neighboring Malaysia. While there she had been kept captive and abused. That was really the first time I heard about human trafficking. Since then I have become much more familiar with violence against women, whether that is human trafficking, rape, domestic abuse etc.

For the last 15 years Valentine's Day has also been called V-Day. V-Day's mission is simple. It demands that violence against women and girls must end. So today, February 14th, 2013, V-Day's 15th Anniversary, they are inviting one billion women and those who love them to walk out, DANCE, RISE UP, AND DEMAND an end to this violence. They are events happening around the world in person and throughout social media like Facebook and Twitter. You can find a lot more information here. You can also watch this YouTube video. 

Birth Traditions

One of the interesting facts about pregnancy and birth are the traditions and beliefs regarding it. Some might call them lore or old wives tales or witchcraft. All cultures have them about all sorts of things but pregnancy and birth have some of the most fascinating, at least to this midwife. For example, how do you tell if you are having a boy or girl without an ultrasound or waiting until the baby is born. Some will say it is based on what part of the day the baby is active or how they lie in the uterus or possible what way a necklace swings when it is held over the stomach of a pregnant woman. Just Google it sometime for a little fun (and funny) reading.

Indonesian culture because it is made up of so many people groups has many different traditions and beliefs related to pregnancy and birth. Here is a story that a missionary serving in West Kalimantan shared recently in one of her blog posts about how the spirits have given instructions to the tribal people they work with about birth. 

Another aspect of the culture I’ve been trying to go a bit deeper in is the spiritual belief system.  There are so many different spirits/ghosts beings that they mostly fear but often call on for help, healing, wisdom, and protection.  One in particular is a spirit that the stories claim, taught them how woman have babies.   Supposedly way back when, when a woman was pregnant and about time to have the baby, they would cut the stomach open to “get the baby out” and then both mother and baby would die.  Well a ghost put a man in a type of trance by a certain tree and told a story of how it should be done - with people pushing from the top and sides and letting the baby come out naturally.  Well when the time came for that man’s wife to give birth that is exactly what he did.  And to his great surprise it worked and was then the new way to deliver babies.  This is still the traditional way they deliver, with people pushing from the top and sides during delivery.  

Andrea Ullum

New Tribes Mission 

http://www.ullumhome.com/

I can just hear the gasps from my midwife and OB friends after reading this, but it is better than how they did it in the past :) I know there will be beliefs and traditions that I will find fascinating about birth in Indonesia and probably ones I find scary too.