We have watched @aftershockdoc . We are aware that melanated wombman are 4/5 times more likely to experience maternal mortality rates than their counterparts.
We are aware of a need to be apart of the change that is waiting to make its way to the birthing industry.
We are returning to our roots with the guidance of our ancestors and community involvement! ✨📍
Help us help you, 2 options. Donate to our birthing fund / Train with our program and get a chance to have your first birth work funded by US. We will also donate to a collective of doulas, midwives, and birthing centers that are helping keep our melanated loved ones ALIVE ❤️🤎
Share this post with anyone that can benefit or collaborate to ensure our mothers return home 💕
#birth#healing#postpartum#doula#midwife#birthingcenter#peace#pregnancy#trimester#mentalhealth#mortalityrate#maternal#maternalmentalhealth#donate#expecting
Photos by @janetjarman | I feel grateful to the many people who made this story about traditional Maya midwives come to life, especially the women in Guatemala and Mexico who shared very intimate moments with me. One of them, midwife Epifania Elías Gonzales, invited me to witness the birth process of Delfina Vicente López, who was eager to deliver her baby in the comfort of her own home, surrounded by family, with Elías by her side. Photo 1: Christian Ixmay Pérez brings Elías to his family’s home in Aldea Nuevo San Antonio, Guatemala, just after his mother, Vicente, went into labor. Photo 2: Elías examines Vicente at her home, not far from San Carlos Sija, Guatemala. During her 30-year career, Elías has attended the births of hundreds of women in the predominantly K’iche'-speaking Indigenous region, where women customarily give birth at home. Photo 3: During a ceremony at her home altar, Vicente (center), her family, and a charismatic Catholic priest pray to bring on the birth of her son. Photo 4: Clementa Eluvia Monterroso Romero, 69 (at left), and Josefa Monterroso Romero, 70, walk to their local health clinic in La Victoria, Guatemala.
Read the full story at the link in bio. #midwife#maternalhealth#birth#Guatemala#Mexico
Photos by @janetjarman | I've met many inspirational people while working on stories about maternal health over the past six years. Among them are women such as Clementa Eluvia Monterroso Romero, 69, a traditional midwife in La Victoria, a community located near Concepción Chiquirichapa, Guatemala. She, her sister, and her daughter, all midwives, serve the needs of many women in La Victoria.
Under the watchful eye of her four-year-old granddaughter, Leslie Eluvia Vásquez Vicente, 4, Monterroso swaddles her grandson just moments after she assisted her daughter in giving birth.
Photo 2: Sisters Josefa Monterroso Romero, center, and Clementa Eluvia Monterroso Romero wait at a public health clinic where they were called in to show documents, including proof of COVID-19 vaccination and identification cards. The two attend monthly meetings at the clinic. They also receive regular updates and training from the Association of Comadronas in the Mam Area (ACAM), a collective of midwives based nearby in Concepción Chiquirichapa.
Photo 3: Clementa Eluvia Monterroso Romero gets instructions on how to use the oximeter included in new kits provided by ACAM.
To learn more about the work of traditional midwives in the Maya region of Guatemala and Mexico, see the full story at the link in bio. For more images, follow @janetjarman. #midwife#maternalhealth#birth#Guatemala#Mexico
Photos by @janetjarman | Midwives in Indigenous Maya communities in Guatemala and Mexico have been on the front lines throughout the pandemic, caring for women throughout pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.
Photo 1: Midwife Lucia Girón Pérez holds a newborn in a birthing room she and her husband constructed in their home in Tzajalchen, in Chiapas, Mexico. As the pandemic progressed, Indigenous women feared the hospital setting, and they came from far and wide for Girón. In 2020 she attended 346 births. In 2021, she received 403 babies at her home, and this year, she's helped over 100 women. Her dream is to expand the space to include a private waiting room and kitchen area for families.
Photo 2: Juana Girón Santis works through labor pains with her mother as Lucia Girón Pérez (left) prepares to receive the baby. Girón lost her first baby in childbirth, a tragedy that inspired her to become a midwife to help other women avoid the same fate.
Photo 3: Girón documents a birth minutes after delivery. She records births with babies’ footprints in her own registry (right) and on an official registry from the midwife advocacy group Nich Ixim. Traditional midwives maintain that authorities often refuse to honor their documentation, which makes obtaining official birth certificates a challenge for families who rely on midwives. For this and other reasons, midwives in Chiapas formed Nich Ixim to advocate for fair treatment and recognition.
Last: María Elena Pérez Jiménez holds her newborn after delivering him the day before at home, in a small community near Sitalá, Chiapas. Pérez chose a home birth, assisted by her mother-in-law, midwife Guadalupe Guzmán Cruz. During her previous birth, doctors had performed a painful, unnecessary episiotomy that took months to heal, she said.
Tap the link in bio to read the full story (with text by @meganjanetsky), and follow me @janetjarman for more. #midwife#maternalhealth#birth#Guatemala#Mexico