Yayasan Bumi Sehat

Yayasan Bumi Sehat

(Yayasan-non profit foundation/Bumi Sehat-healthy mother earth)

I think I have done a good amount of traveling in my life but no place on this earth has moved me in the way that Bali has. My grandmother is Indonesian and though I may not look it –that Indonesian blood runs strong through my veins. Maybe thats why I am still thinking about the amazing work and the incredible people of Yayasan Bumi Sehat.

I came across an article many years ago-I think it was in Mothering Magazine about this small birthing center in Ubud, Bali. I knew that when I made it there one day I woul
d make sure to stop by. A few years later I was in the midst of planning a huge family trip to Bali for 5 weeks. I had no idea whether or not this birthing center was anywhere near where we would be staying but I was going to get there somehow. Towards the end of the 5 weeks-my husband and I hopped on the scooter (not going to lie-I was a tad nervous about this part) and found our way to Bumi Sehat.

It was a calm day at the center-I think a few women had just had their babies and there were a few scheduled to come in later that day for follow up visits so we were able to walk around and see the center. Its not what you would expect necessarily but at the same time you wouldn’t want it to exist any other way. The health center has two birthing rooms, an area for postpartum recovery, and a few other rooms set aside for general health.
We met with a woman who had come to volunteer from the Midwest. She gave us the grand tour, we were not able to go into any of the birthing rooms as they were occupied but we were able to experience everything else. At the time we were there they were working on a new sign for the front-it was to be a surprise for the founder Ibu Robin Lim (Ibu is sort of like Ms.) for when she returned from Italy. If I remember correctly she was out generating funding and grants for the center. (They also have a center in Aceh-(known for where the Tsunami hit a few years ago).

I promised I would do what I could to help spread the word about the center and perhaps even try and raise funds for the larger facility they hope to build to serve a larger population of families.

In 1994 Robin Lim lived in Ubud and began seeing pregnant women and their babies free of charge. As could only be expected as time went on and word spread more and more people came to see her and more and more people came to help her. By 2006 “Yayasan Bumi Sehat” was in full effect.

These days not only do they provide a space for women to have “peaceful, gentle” births, (Indonesia has one of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in Southeast Asia according to WHO) they work with the community in many other ways as well. They provide gener

al health services, capacity building, and community outreach as well. They are committed to working with and supporting the people in and around Ubud and of course at their center in Aceh.

I am inspired by Robin Lim and what she has created. I wonder if she ever imagined what would grow from what was probably just a bit of human kindness. I knew the first time I would make it there someday and I know that I will be back there again. This time I will be ready to volunteer and get as involved as possible. We all have our causes or our organizations that are truly dear to us for whatever reasons and I am grateful to have found mine.

Please visit the website to learn more and to donate.

http://www.bumisehatbali.org/

Raising a birth activist

My son is a boy's boy-he loves Star Wars or anything involving a battle. He is one of those kids who despite your very best efforts will turn his peanut butter and jelly sandwich into a weapon and despite the fact I was a vegetarian when I was pregnant with him-is a raging carnivore. I have learned over the last eight years to accept him for who and what he is and have let go of what I envisioned him to be. However, occasionally I catch a glimpse of the man he is going to become and I gotta tell ya-I am liking what I see.

I am a doula and when he was about 6 years old he asked me if he could come to a birth with me. I asked him if he knew what to do at a birth, he turned to me as if he was this aged midwife who had been practicing for years and said "well, I would just put one hand on her belly and one hand on her heart and tell her that everything was going to be ok." Well needless to say that floored me but I didn't realize that the best was yet to come.

A few months ago we were going to an outdoor event and I was ecstatic over the fact that there was going to be a nursing tent available. My son again looked at me and said "I just don't see what the big deal is-why can't you just nurse out in the open mom, I mean women have been doing it for thousands and thousands of years. Its just normal." He may have seen a tear in my eye. We had also been reading a book where there was an image of a mother bottle feeding her baby, he was disturbed by this image, it was just plain unacceptable. But when we were reading one of the many wonderful Barefoot Books in our collection and he read about a woman with her baby at her breast-he was delighted. Its funny what our children learn when we aren’t paying attention.

The other day I was preparing for a birth. I had a heads up and had time to prepare because she was being induced. My son was quite confused because he is used to waking up in the morning to find I had left in the middle of the night to attend a birth. When I explained what an induction was-he glared at me with horror in his eyes and said "that is a crime against women and their babies."

My budding birth activist was present at his little brothers home birth in May. As you can imagine he was a bundle of support. Not only did he suggest I close my eyes and feel the warm Egyptian sand at my feet (he wanted me to envision a dream vacation) he made it a point to hand out chocolate covered almonds to the entire support team.

These days when he is running amok in my house, battling imaginary foes, and wielding weapons I am ok with it because I know its probably a just cause.

expect what?

I tell pretty much every pregnant woman I know to come check out the Mothering lending library. It has an extensive collection of books and other materials ranging in topics, from natural parenting to childbirth preparation to medical texts. Knowing that at any given moment there could be someone rummaging through the books, I should have been more prepared when I was confronted by that book.

I was astounded to find What to Expect When You are Expecting lying on the floor. Thinking my co-worker, who is a midwifery student, had selected the book, I shouted my objections loud and clear, only to turn around and discover that there was a bewildered pregnant woman staring back at me.

I apologized profusely, but instead of being offended she was quite interested to learn why I objected so. My life revolves around pregnant women. Not only do I work at Mothering, but I am a doula, childbirth educator, and prenatal massage therapist, so any opportunity to sit down with someone to talk shop is a welcome one. I told her about my experience 8 years ago; I remembered it so well; I was about 3 months pregnant sitting in the bathtub with highlighter in hand. I was so ready and so eager to learn all I could and well, let’s just say What to Expect When You are Expecting was not what I was expecting at all!

Don’t get me wrong. The book was informative, if all you want to read about is every possible complication you could experience while pregnant. The book terrified me. The diet portion of the book was militant, and everything about labor and the birth of your baby was quite medical. I believe that pregnant couples should take an active role in their education, and should inform themselves about all aspects of this miraculous journey. But at the same time, there is power in the positive and for one source to focus so much on all the bad things that could (though rarely) happen is unfortunate.

I felt relieved and could only wish that someone had been there to warn me all those years ago in my bathtub. This library visitor and I had chosen that book for all of the same reasons (because it’s popular, because we wanted to learn all we could) but now she had placed it back on the shelf. However, now she looked to me to provide her with some alternatives. There is nothing I enjoy more than sharing a good book, especially books about pregnancy and birth, and I have pretty much read them all. Lucky me, right at my fingertips I had my favorite books to bless her with.

The first one I recommended was Having a Baby Naturally by Peggy O’Mara. Sure, she is one of my heroines, but in addition to that, it is just such a wonderfully positive and empowering read. It is pretty much the antithesis of What to Expect. It is full of ideas for achieving memorable, healthy pregnancies and empowering births.

I also strongly suggested she check out Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth. In our culture we are inundated with images of women in agonizing labor—screaming at their doctors and partners, rushing off to the hospital the second their water breaks, and because drama sells, eventually something goes wrong and the woman and/or baby must be saved. In both of Ina May Gaskin’s books (Spiritual Midwifery and Guide to Childbirth) the reader is exposed to beautiful birth stories as well as practical information about pregnancy and childbirth. The stories are not overly idealistic. Occasionally there is a complication, but the reader learns that even these obstacles can be handled calmly.

An additional favorite is Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Newborn by Penny Simkin, Janet Whalley, and Ann Kepler. I always recommend this book because I read it first as a pregnant woman and the second time as a student doula. This book is no-nonsense, and covers everything from the anatomy of the pregnant woman to the history of infant feeding. I think it is very well organized and not at all overwhelming. I continue to use it as a reference and have worn the binding down.

Another Penny Simkin treasure is The Birth Partner. This book comes with me to every single birth I attend, even my own. Everyone should read this one—moms, doulas, and partners—because it really is “everything you need to know to help a woman through childbirth.” All the tricks of the trade right there in your hands. It is simply invaluable.

In coming to look for informative reading materials this woman stumbled upon me who was only too willing to spend the day talking about natural childbirth and all of the options available to her. We discussed the difference between doulas and midwives as well as the difference in care under a midwife, family practitioner, and OB.

As a doula and educator, by the time I meet the pregnant couple they are usually already in their third trimester. When I was pregnant the first time around, I chose my doula before I had a doctor, or even before I told my family. There is great value in establishing this relationship early on. It allows for a level of comfort and trust that grows with the pregnancy.

Some of us are fortunate enough to have been given the message early on that birth is a natural, normal, process. Others discover the beauty of childbirth along the way. I am eternally grateful to the student doula in my woman’s studies class whose presentation sparked the interest that put me on this path. It’s fascinating to consider that had I just skipped that one class, I may never have been exposed to the concept of a doula, natural birth or Goddess forbid, Mothering Magazine. I have a funny feeling something similar occurred that day in the library.