Medical Mission: Midwives For The Dominican Republic
We're loving all of the updates we've been receiving from several of the Medical Missions we've donated to over the past few months & we hope you love reading about the wonderful work being done throughout the world. It's amazing to see so much good being accomplished when we are bombarded with so many stories about just the opposite. Here is an update from Shalena, a KimKaps customer, who traveled to The Domincan Republic:
MIDWIVES FOR THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
is a non-profit (state, pending federal) organization dedicated to
supporting, educating, and researching the state of Midwifery in the
Dominican Republic. It is our commitment to assist the Dominican
government, non-profit organizations, hospitals, businesses, and
individuals in the implementation of legalized, recognized Midwifery and
Midwifery programs in the Dominican Republic. We advocate for safe,
healthy births for Dominican women and are also dedicated to reducing
the adolescent pregnancy rate which is now the 5th highest in Latin
America and the Carribean.
We work with public hospitals in the
Dominican Republic who barely have supplies enough to properly care for
the women who show up to give birth. The women are required to bring
their own sheets to the hospital, and also their own baby clothes. The
majority of these women live on less than $2 per day, so finding a set
of sheets to take to the hospital is usually a hardship. These women
birth on sheetless beds, postpartum are put 2 moms/babies to a bed
(overcrowding), they are cleaned up after their delivery with their own
bras and panties (no washcloths), and I could go on forever....
The
infection rates of these women after delivery and cesarean section are
very high. KimKaps, with the donated scrub caps, have contributed to the
dedication of MIDWIVES FOR THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC in reducing Maternal
infection rates. The blue disposable caps that are supplied to the
hospital by the govenrment are scarce, few, and far between. Nurses and
Physicians are instructed to use one disposable cap all day, folding
them up to place in their pockets. At times there are none available and
physicians and nurses are forced to enter the OR suites without any
hair coverage at all.
We want to thank KimKaps for their
generous donation. We work with several hospitals and will take any
future donations with a happy heart. The doctors, nurses, lactation
consultants, and midwives were extremely overjoyed and picked their caps
out and held them as if they were gold.
At MIDWIVES FOR THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, our motto is: Education, Service, and Achievement and we thank you for your SERVICE!!!
