Supporting Peace

Gentle Birth

Checking a baby postpartum

The cell phone next to my head rang at 2 am, I was needed at the clinic.  I kissed my child sleeping next to me on the forehead, jumped out of bed and started the short walk down the dark quiet road.  Along the way I gathered some pink and yellow frangipani flowers from the side of the road, to cover the placenta and hoping for a water birth.  I arrived to find the second time mom in active labor.  She had come to Bumi Sehat and to Robin Lim for a more peaceful birth than her last; a hospital c-section where she was separated from her baby for hours and was charged an exorbitant amount of money.  She was pacing the room while the birth tub was being filled.  Once it was full, she slid into the warm water and relaxed, the flowers floating around her.  While she labored her older child slept in the corner of the room and her husband rubbed her shoulders.  We poured warm water on her belly with each contraction.  Soon enough it was time to push and the midwives began to sing a Hindu prayer.  Her baby was received under the water.  The mother quickly gathered her baby into her arms, smiling with joy and relief.  Indeed, it was a gentle birth.  The water was drained and the placenta delivered and kept attached to the baby.  They moved back to the bed and she settled in and nursed the baby for the first time while we all quietly tidied the room and got her a meal.  She and her family set the tone for the birth and postpartum.  The family was able to enjoy a few days in a postpartum room while the mother took time to heal and have quiet time with her baby.

A placenta still attached to the baby.
Adorned with flowers and honored for its great work.

Erin and a Bumi Baby

Sometime in mid-August, my business partner Katherine sat me down and asked me if I’d be willing to go to Bali as a preceptor to the student midwives at the Yayasan Bumi Sehat (Foundation for Healthy Birth), leaving in 6 weeks.  It had been my dream to go to Bali as a volunteer with my family at some future date.   Now I was faced with a difficult decision; we hadn’t done the 2 years of fund-raising we had originally planned to do, but here was a need that wasn’t being met, on the other side of the world, right now.   James and I gathered our family and prepared to meet the challenges and amazing opportunities Bali had to offer. 

We have been here just 2 months, and I am still in awe of the services that YBS provides for the community.  YBS is a clinic founded by Robin Lim who still works here with an incredible Balinese staff.  Why do they need volunteers?  The amazing and endless work they do is supplemented by volunteers like us.  While I have been here I have supervised several students and supported the local midwives as well,  in all attending over 40 births since we arrived.   Unique in Bali, Bumi Sehat offers compassionate and thorough care; all mothers leave the clinic healthy and nursing their babies successfully.   A young mother was in this week and her mother in law was trying to tell her formula was better.  Robin and the midwives were in every hour to support her to nurse and give information to the family on the importance of breastfeeding babies.  In Indonesia if a baby breastfeeds, they are 300 times less likely to die in the first year of life.

Fat and healthy breastfed baby

The clinic is not just a birth center, people who have nowhere else to go come here everyday for help. Today, a man came in with his 7 month-old son, who is having a respiratory problem. We were able to offer him medical advice as well as acupuncture and homeopathy.  He would have been unable to pay for the care his baby needed elsewhere.  No other clinic in Bali offers so much help and alternative medicine for free.  

Staff getting ready for prenatals

Checking a mothers belly at a prenatal visit

Everyday our decision to come to Bali is reinforced by the extraordinary care we see given to families in need.  Being a part of such an organization has been eye opening and a wonderful learning experience for our whole family.  I am grateful for the opportunity to learn and share my knowledge as well.  I hope the lives we have touch have benefited as much as our own

No donation is too small. Bumi Sehat has survived all these many years, because we have a world-wide community of partners in service to humanity.

Ibu Robin and Erin relaxing after a birth

Dr Bobbi teaching volunteers about acupuncture.

Hope with Ibu Maria.  Most midwives work a second job in addition to Bumi Sehat.

Ibu Robin with Bumi babies. 

Erin, Ibu Robin, Ibu Wayan (president of the midwives in Indonesia) and Bridget Lynch of ICM.  Midwives working to change the policies of maternal health recommendations

The snack shack outside the clinic.  A great place to get a drink or catch up on the news

Bumi Sehat Logo.  I see it everywhere in Bali!