My Midwife Heart

The worthwhile problems are the ones you can really help solve...the ones you can really contribute something to. No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it.

                                    -Richard Feynman

It's 18 degrees in Vermont this morning and dark outside. Winter is just about here and my world is all tucked in. Gardens harvested and covered until spring. The wood stove has partnered with Tom and me to keep us cozy.  Our dinners are soups and squash and I'm gathering food from my farmer friends so my freezer can hopefully be the the only cold-source inside our home...cold so we can be warm with our cooked goose from Jeff, pork and chicken from Edge, eggs from our dear chickens.

Chelsea's baby is still tucked in her belly...happy to stay warm and wet inside her womb-nest for an extra almost-two-weeks...teaching us an amused patience.

The hot, sweaty births of the summer are a heart-memory that feeds my love of hope for the future. Those babies now smile at their surroundings and fill the world with newness.

I'm preparing for the cozy births of mid-winter...born in wood-stove-warmed rooms, secure and wrapped in sweet cotton blankets.

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Early mornings I get up quietly so I don't wake Tom.  Our home is small, encouraging the most silent of foot-patterings way before the dawn. 

Everything in this small house is an opportunity to be connected by sound and smell in our home. Thoughtfulness therefore is a chosen Way, as is connection. 

I make my coffee and while it drips I stoke the stove, feed the cat and tidy the rumpled pillows in the living room. By then my coffee cup warms my hands and I head to my office to check on the families across the world at Bumi Sehat.

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In my office this morning I'm on my way to the Philippines with my team in Indonesia, working on logistics, funding and support.

It's not so quiet across the world this morning. Many mornings I wake up to emails about delicate births in our birth center, students excited about what they are learning about Gentle Birth. I wake up to emails from Eka or Ayu, passing me a love note via email.

This morning my emails talk of disaster preparedness and focused, vigilant, non-stop team work to keep the connections with our partnering NGO's. They talk of birth kits, essential medicines, access to light and electricity.

And the emails talk of money.  Always they talk of money, but this morning there is an urgency.

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If you've ever been pregnant and had a baby, you know how much preparation it takes to change a life...Yours.

If you are one of the 1,400,000 pregnant women in the Philippines right now and are anywhere near the massive typhoon area, Today your 'preparation' for having your baby is hoping you can get some potable water to drink and something to eat. You are hoping that your baby stays in its protected home until you can find one. You are probably hungry and very afraid, as your midwife or hospital is no where to be found.  You don't know where or with whom you will birth your baby. Your other children are hungry, thirsty and dirty.

And you all want to go Home.

The feeling of overwhelm I often feel can at times drags me down.  I can feel there is too much to do.

Then I remember that the goal is to focus my attention on The worthwhile problems...the ones I can really contribute something to.

Tomorrow Bumi Sehat lands on the ground to set up a midwife clinic in the Philippines at the request of the government. All of us at Bumi are a bit anxious, even though our hearts can't help guide us there. We know it will initially cost about $2000 a day to make this work.  And we are praying there is enough Memory that people will remember what we are about to undertake and support us and our work in the Philippines.

Bumi Sehat needs A Million Mothers to help thousands of women Prepare.

Our midwife hearts are hoping your Mother Heart will remember the Preparing and partner with us with your family, childbirth class, work...

Please join our Army of Love for the pregnant women and their young children in the Philippines.

www.AMillionMothers.org
A Million Mothers Facebook Page

Robin Lim Talks about Preparing for the Philippines

In deep, trusting love,
Katherine

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