CleanBirth - Saving Mothers and Babies in Laos
CleanBirth.org - Donate $5 Saves 2 Lives
The next time you buy a gift for a new mom buy from businesses that care.
For wraps and slings:
For beautiful collages for your kid’s room:
For your doula needs or for products that help you prepare for birth:
Huge thanks to these business owners who are making a difference!
CleanBirth.org and the nurses, moms and babies that we serve are so lucky to have been chosen at YourDoulaBag’s Charity of the Quarter. For every bag that is sold between now and the end of the year, YourDoulaBag will donate $3!
YourDoulaBags is a one-stop place for doulas — with filled bags, individual items, gifts and clothing. It’s also a great place for expectant moms to buy awesome birth-related products.
Each time a doula buys a bag, a birth is made safer in Laos!
YourDoulaBag has also featured the CleanBirth.org story here: http://yourdoulabag.com/blog/
Big thanks to Alice Turner CD (DONA) for selecting us and for supporting moms and babies in Laos.
Today I participated in a World Contraceptive Day Chat on Twitter. I listened to the research-based information about the need for family planning in the world to save the lives of women.
And I must weigh in. If only for the fact that 1 in 3 girls in the world has a baby before 18 and that childbirth and pregnancy are the leading cause of death for girls 15-18 worldwide.
In my culture, in my religion (Catholic) this a very controversial topic. But how can we in good conscience condemn young girls to a fate that we as women in the US had the choice to avoid. I’m not talking about an unwanted baby, I am talking about young girls dying in childbirth because their bodies just weren’t ready for motherhood.
In the US girls are able to get free contraception. They have the education to read, to know where to go, and to understand how to take a pill.
This girl above could have use help, advice, access to trained nurses to guide her. She had none of these.
Girls should have the right to choose when to have a baby. Watch this video to hear more.
They should have the right to choose what to do with their lives. Because having a baby at 14 has a huge impact on what a girl can do with her life.
Family planning enables girls to delay 1st pregnancy and stay in school longer. Here’s research based findings from Advocates for Youth:
Young women with low levels of educational and economic attainment often experience restricted ability and motivation to regulate their fertility, resulting in higher rates of early pregnancy. The cycle is further perpetuated as young women who are in school are forced to discontinue their education when they become pregnant, greatly restricting their economic opportunities.
Young women with higher levels of education are more likely to postpone marriage and childbearing.3
Children of adolescent parents not only face an elevated risk of illness or death; they are also more likely to be abandoned, left to live on the street, and caught in a cycle of poverty.4,2
Family planning allows girls in Laos to stay alive. According to the World Bank, in Laos 1 in 74 women will die in the course of their lives from childbirth. In Italy this number is 1 in 20,300.
Here’s more research-based facts from Advocates for Youth:
Adolescents age 15 through 19 are twice as likely to die during pregnancy or child birth as those over age 20; girls under age 15 are five times more likely to die.[2,6,7]..
Infants of adolescents are at increased risk for death. In fact, the infants of adolescent mothers are more likely to die before their first birthday than are the infants of older mothers.[10]
Complications during childbirth account for almost 25 percent of newborn deaths.[11] Preterm delivery and low birth weight are other reasons for deaths among infants born to adolescent mothers.[10]
While CleanBirth.org does not work directly in areas of family planning, we should support our nurses to teach young women to know and understand their bodies and their choices. No child should lose her life giving birth, when such a tragedy is entirely preventable.
Since we began fundraising one year ago, we have been so very lucky to the have the generous support of our friends and family, and their friends and family.
Crowdfunding expanded our reach to donors who would never otherwise have hear of us. Our fundraiser in New Haven, and the press that came with it, opened even more hearts and wallets.
As the work in Laos progresses and our local partner and nurses take ownership of the project, we must do an even better job of letting people know how they can help.
We are thrilled to report that in the past 2 weeks, we have teamed up with 4 websites/businesses that will help us just that!
We are so excited that UCHI, which offers LuvDub Kangaroo Care Wrap (patent pending), stylish nursing covers and baby carriers, will be donating a percentage of proceeds to CleanBirth.org. The products are nurturing and wonderful – we are proud to have such an amazing Business Sponsor.
We have also been named YourDoulaBag‘s next Charity of the Quarter. For every packed bag that is sold $3 will go to the charity of the quarter. For every 2 bags sold, we can pay for safe birthing supplies for one mom and one baby!!
Additionally, CleanBirth.org’s Baby Shower Hostess Cards and Baby Shower Favors are profiled on Beautiful Baby Shower Ideas. Here’s hoping the interest in the cards we’ve seen Pinterest turns into a trend!
And, this month, CleanBirth.org appears on the awesome, informative and fun website: Kids Yoga Stories, as part of an article I wrote about teaching yoga to kids in Nicaragua.
Thanks to all of these businesses who are promoting our non-profit work to protect women and children in Laos. We are very glad to have you join our mission!
I read two blog posts today that are must-reads for anyone interested in infant health in Laos.
Both are personal experiences. Both written by mamas. One living in Laos, one from Laos. Both women are very aware of the high rates of infant mortality in Laos. Both are very supportive of our work to make birth safer.
First, CleanBirth.org volunteer liaison in Laos, Dee Warren Harlow, wrote this amazing piece about her experience in Salavan province, where we work. Here’s an excerpt:
For me to know the long and difficult road that these two mothers have taken to give birth safely made the miracle of birth all the more awesome to me. To know that unless they traveled all way to a provincial hospital, they most likely did not get any prenatal check ups, or vitamin supplements, or ultrasounds. Although the standard of care that we consider basic are indeed accessible and cost relatively little because they are subsidized by the government, they are only available in large urban centers. This means that the 70% of the Lao population who live in rural areas either require a lot of resources to receive this care, or get none at all.
The second article by the fabulous Theek aka the Laotian Commotion draws attention to the reality that only 40% of Lao babies are breastfeed exclusively to the appropriate age. Her personal experiences with her own mother bring to life the ingrained beliefs about breastfeeing that persist, even though her mother is living in the US:
My mother tried to convince brand-new postpartum me that my crying newborn was hungry because I wasn’t making enough milk. I would have entirely believed her if I wasn’t so precise in reaching the front door with squirting breast milk from our living room couch. My mom had a bunch of “Lao remedies” at the ready anyway. She would spoon-drop some water into his wailing mouth. She also suggested the most common Lao baby feeding method, regurgitated sticky rice to make him feel full longer. Sticky rice for infants is the Laotian equivalent to what we know as rice cereal in Western culture. The idea is the same as well where the introduction of solid foods will fill out their little bellies.
Thanks to these amazing women for sharing their own experiences and working to make birth and infancy safer in Laos.