Our Winter 2010 featured organization is the African Birth Collective.
The African Birth Collective is a group of international midwives, doulas and birth activists working together in Sénégal, West Africa to exchange ideas and midwifery skills. They are currently try to organize the building of a birth house for traditional midwives in their village.
They sent us the information below:
"Help us build a Birth House for the Traditional Midwives of our
Village!!
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!"
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!"
Go to their website to find out more information about their organization and get the details of their upcoming natural building workshop (to build the birth center!). http://www.africanbirthcollective.org/index.html
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