Serving others...

A doula is most well-known for being a servant. More specifically, a woman who serves in birth. I was doing a routine check of my facebook messages (I'm supposed to be fasting from facebook for Lent, but keep getting work-related messages. So I check...) when an article that a fellow birth lover in Georgia posted. Here it is:

http://www.medpagetoday.com/OBGYN/Pregnancy/31457

It took my breath away. I know, I know. It's common sense to say that using sterile equipment in birth will help increase health for both the mother and baby. And those things are common and easy to come by in a moments notice for people like you and me. But there are people around the world who don't have these things on stand by. Who don't have 50 cents to put towards simple life saving equipment. 

Even I have 50 cents. 

So, I am inspired. I want to find a way to help. Here is my idea. First, I need to find a specific community to get involved with. I'll be emailing my Bishop and a few midwives about this today. If any of you out there know of a specific community off hand who could use this type of help, feel free to pass on their info. Any missionaries who are working in rural areas across the globe would be helpful. 

What I'll do is after I find a community, and after I have completed raising funds for my midwives who have offered to serve at my birth, I will continue to use this blog to raise funds for this cause. There will be more paper work and business work making this sort of charity legit and all (I will probably do that through my church if I can). But all in all, I feel like I have a great avenue to help serve other mothers in a very simple way. If I cannot physically help mothers across the globe by holding their hand, I will do my darndest to help increase their chance at a healthy start to motherhood. And life. For each mother and for each baby. 

Preparing for Birth

So, I'm 20 weeks pregnant with my 4th baby. I can't believe it. I never thought I'd have 4 kids! I've been working on a few things, preparing for the baby's arrival: mending broken baby things, making new baby things, cleaning house, etc. One of my biggest projects is preparing for the actual birth itself. It has been my dream the past couple of years to have a home birth. I have avoided thinking about it too often, well, because most  insurance does not cover midwifery attended home birth in Ga, and we do not have extra expense. I put the word out there anyhow that I had this desire. I have prayed this desire often to God as well. Through the grapevine, some midwives that I have worked with and love heard that I wanted a home birth but could not afford one. So they passed the word that they wanted me to contact them. After speaking to one of the midwives, I learned that home birth is a possibility for me. She is willing to attend my baby's birth knowing that I may or may not be able to pay her. This is one of the reasons among many why midwifery is so amazing.

 I am stubborn, and because I work in the birth world, I know there is no such thing as a free birth. There are always expenses. She lives pretty far away, she will have to pay her assistant for attending to me, she will use supplies, she will probably pay more than usual for her food while on the road, and I will also have to buy a home birth kit. So I don't want to leave her empty handed.

I put out word to a select few facebook friends to try and get ideas on how to raise money to compensate these midwives for their generosity. I had an overwhelming response of messages in my inbox of people who wanted to donate to the midwives in order to help me. This brought me to tears. I have actually been a bit paralyzed by the thought of it and I hadn't done anything about it till now. So, I have created this blog, per request of some of my supporters, in efforts to keep you up to date on my pregnancy, family, and such. I'll add a paypal button for those of you who want to donate to my midwives for their awesomeness. Until then, if anyone wants to donate, you can send a payment through paypal to que.brown@gmail.com.

If anyone has questions or concerns about home birth, I hope I can answer many of them through my blogging and my journey, but you can also email me privately at that same email address. I know it's not a popular concept, but it's what I feel is best for me this time.

Looking forward to sharing with you all. Sorry I'm so late getting started! I will do my best to keep updates as regular as possible!

****Edited to add: I posted a "Donate" button in the top right hand of the blog to make donations easier. You do not have to have a Paypal account to donate, just a credit card, debit card, or something like that. Thanks in advance for your help!!!!