Midwife to Benin

By Sharon Robinson

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NZ $10,000 pledged

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This campaign was successful and closed on 18/09/2013 at 6:40 PM.

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About

Midwife To Benin

Project 2013-09-06 00:27:15 +1200

I met Kristie and her husband when I went to Great Barrier Island as a locum midwife a couple of years ago. I asked her to write up a little something to explain the history and rationale for this request:

Kirstie's story

Natitingou, Republic of Benin, West Africa Kiwi and Aussie Homebirthing in West Africa The French sign over the door of the maternity ward reads "No men allowed". Inside, the stirrup tables are overshadowed by vast fluorescent lights, and through the open door, in the heat of the bare dirt courtyard, the vultures are watching...

My husband and I are volunteers working and living with a Christian Non Government Organization here in Republic of Benin, West Africa. We are a prayer and retreat centre and offer conferences and hospitality, working alongside a vocational centre that trains metal workers and engineers, and focuses on reforestation and building with natural materials.

We have 3 boys and I am due to have my 4th baby 1st October. I have a history of great water births, 2 of them home births and I am glad to say without complications. We are confident about this birth also but we have been unable to find backup this time around.

I have been strongly influenced by the active birth movement in New Zealand. The magazine Tummy Talk published the birth story of my second, Zion (a water birth here in Benin). H2Oh Baby and Rotary kindly sponsored us a birth pool which arrived just in time for the birth! The home birth story of my 2nd and 3rd (a Great Barrier Island water birth) is online at Home Birth Aotearoa. I have felt limited by an extremely medicalized model of care here in Benin and there is almost no one with confidence in physiological or normal birth. The hospitals here are also operating at 3rd World levels of facilities, training and hygiene, so as a result I have decided not to birth in a hospital here.

We are gearing up for another home birth in our mud hut with getting out the pool and installing a solar hot water system, and hoping it will work in the rainy season! We would love to see a supportive encouraging person like Sharon enabled to come out to be alongside us at this time. Someone who is a believer in the possibility of normal and physiological birth! We are volunteer workers who are enabled to be here through donations of friends, so we are able to contribute $4000 and living expenses while here, towards Sharon coming out.

Thanks for your interest!
Kristie and Johann Bayne

Next steps

If you are interested in providing any financial support for me (and my husband Dave) to go to Benin in the next few weeks so I can be Kristie's midwife, we would be most appreciative. We are going ahead and getting the VISAs we will need to go in case it becomes financially feasible. We will need to make a decision very soon as Kristie is due Oct 1st. My travel agent has tentatively found tickets for us to leave NZ on about the 23rd Sept (only 2 1/2 weeks away!) and to return mid Oct. I have a midwife friend here in NZ who has offered to help cover my caseload here while I go.

Comments

Updates 1

Here's a picture of a Dad whose baby was born with me last night. He is offering to shave his head if we reach our target!

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18/09/2013 at 6:40pm

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Sam McPherson

Midwife To Benin

Project 2013-09-06 00:27:15 +1200

Kirstie's story

Natitingou, Republic of Benin, West Africa Kiwi and Aussie Homebirthing in West Africa The French sign over the door of the maternity ward reads "No men allowed". Inside, the stirrup tables are overshadowed by vast fluorescent lights, and through the open door, in the heat of the bare dirt courtyard, the vultures are watching...

My husband and I are volunteers working and living with a Christian Non Government Organization here in Republic of Benin, West Africa. We are a prayer and retreat centre and offer conferences and hospitality, working alongside a vocational centre that trains metal workers and engineers, and focuses on reforestation and building with natural materials.

We have 3 boys and I am due to have my 4th baby 1st October. I have a history of great water births, 2 of them home births and I am glad to say without complications. We are confident about this birth also but we have been unable to find backup this time around.

I have been strongly influenced by the active birth movement in New Zealand. The magazine Tummy Talk published the birth story of my second, Zion (a water birth here in Benin). H2Oh Baby and Rotary kindly sponsored us a birth pool which arrived just in time for the birth! The home birth story of my 2nd and 3rd (a Great Barrier Island water birth) is online at Home Birth Aotearoa. I have felt limited by an extremely medicalized model of care here in Benin and there is almost no one with confidence in physiological or normal birth. The hospitals here are also operating at 3rd World levels of facilities, training and hygiene, so as a result I have decided not to birth in a hospital here.

We are gearing up for another home birth in our mud hut with getting out the pool and installing a solar hot water system, and hoping it will work in the rainy season! We would love to see a supportive encouraging person like Sharon enabled to come out to be alongside us at this time. Someone who is a believer in the possibility of normal and physiological birth! We are volunteer workers who are enabled to be here through donations of friends, so we are able to contribute $4000 and living expenses while here, towards Sharon coming out.

Thanks for your interest!
Kristie and Johann Bayne