Running-For Life

Welcome to our Haiti Half-Marathon Informational Post!

The two Sarahs (also known as "O" and "D") are combining many of their favorite things (Running, Haiti, pregnant moms and babies) and putting together a team of runners from Los Angeles to raise money for a Maternity Center in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  

Will you join us?  
There are multiple ways to get involved:
1) Run with us!! Sign up for the Huntington Beach Half Marathon on February 3rd, 2013 (Email us or comment if you need a training schedule)
2) Help us Fund-raise (more info below)
3) Donate now! Click on the widget in the upper right hand corner of this blog. It's safe and easy!! 

Did you know?

• Maternal mortality in the United States is 1 out of 2000. (One women out of 2000 dies in childbirth)
•  Maternal mortality in Haiti is 1 out of 93. This is the highest maternal mortality rate in the Western Hemisphere. (Not OK people!!)
• Heartline Maternity Center (where the Sarah's have volunteered since the 2010 Earthquake) provides free, quality prenatal care to any woman who joins their program. The woman is educated, well fed and provided with prenatal vitamins. The women give birth at the birth center (where Sarah and I volunteer when we are in Haiti) with trained midwives and are given education and access to health care, breastfeeding support and birth control options. The moms also participate in a Child Development Class weekly for 6 months after they give birth. Women are loved, educated, and supported for a full year by the Heartline programs.

D & O with the Heartline Maternity Center Staff

Learn more about the Heartline Maternity Center and the fund-raising efforts here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DOMvELQoys&feature=youtu.be&noredirect=1  (Look for Sarah O's cameo at 0:55)
and here: Other Run For Life Videos

A note from the midwife
On my last trip to Haiti (in September 2012) I (Sarah Obermeyer) understood the need for access to midwifery care in a whole new way. Wisline came in Monday morning after her water broke at home. This was to be her 6th baby. Her first child, a 16-year-old daughter, accompanied her in labor. She did a beautiful job of walking and laboring in the morning and mid-afternoon she was ready to deliver her baby into Tara's waiting hands.

O checking Wislene's BP

Dr. Jen and Beth had to use their resuscitation skills to help this baby start breathing. A few minutes later when the placenta delivered, Wisline started bleeding. Despite medications and all the tricks I knew to use, we could not find the source of the bleeding and we could not stop it. Minutes after she started bleeding, we determined that she needed to be transported to a local hospital 20 minutes away. 


I rode in the back of the ambulance with my hand trying desperately to compress the lower part of her uterus, watching blood continuing to seep onto the stretcher. When we got to the hospital we turned Wisline over to the staff there and they quickly determined that yes, she would need a hysterectomy. We all stood watching as they wheeled her out to surgery – all of us marked with her blood. The physician who would be doing the surgery turned and asked which of us could go and donate our blood so that Wisline could receive a blood transfusion. We all said yes.

Literally, they took our blood and exchanged it for her blood type and took it into the operating room for her. Crazy. It put a whole new spin on the idea of sacrificially serving the women of Haiti.

Wisline is alive. Her six children are not orphaned. Every once in a while I have a great sense that I am in the right place at the right time - this was one of those moments. I cannot doubt that I was supposed to be there. There were moments when I didn’t want to be there – when I wished that someone else could be in charge. But as we were riding in that ambulance I knew without any doubt that the presence of God was hovering right over my shoulder. I kept crying out to him to be near and found him to be as close as my breath. The Heartline team working to keep Wisline alive was not working on our own strength.

Wisline and her family, one week after surgery

While every birth is not like this one (thankfully) this is what the Heartline team does for every woman – they step into each birth with the possibility of needing to intervene in a way that is sacrificially giving of themselves for each woman and baby and family. Because of God's grace and the provision of a place like Heartline, six children have a mother. I am supporting the Heartline Maternity Center and their desire to grow and accommodate more women and more births because I believe that every woman should have a safe birth where she is respected, loved and has access to the medical that she may need.

Prenatal appointments happen every Thursday