When a Baby has a Baby (why you should support Heartline)

She's fifteen years old. Her baby weighs four pounds.

His little legs are deformed.

A teen mom in Haiti. I wonder if there's any harder demographic to be a part of in this world.

I went to Heartline this morning and worked with this young mother to get her baby to nurse well. Breastfeeding is vital in this country. Heartline works hard to teach the women of Haiti about breastfeeding and to encourage them...cheer them on...as they learn how to feed their babies. Heartline is saving the lives of mothers and children in Haiti. Crucial. Their ministry here is crucial. If you want to invest in Haiti...in something sustainable, in something that is effective, put your money on Heartline.

Every time I am at Heartline it's emotional. It's not very often that you get to be a part of something so obviously good, vital, and redemptive. It's like pure beauty, right in your face. You have to sort of sit there, stare at it, and soak it in awhile.

(originally posted by Heather Hendrick 9/25/10)

A Midwife for C-Sections? by Sarah O

Marie Carmel in labor, sweet husband washing her feet

Okay..I know it is kind of odd for a midwife who loves birth the good old-fashioned way, but this is exactly what I am doing...running to raise money for c-sections.

When I was in Haiti right after the earthquake, I formed a relationship with a wonderful midwife there. Here is the good news! Beth McHoul has lived in Haiti for 20 years and has developed a passion for providing women with safe birth. Because of this, she has enrolled in a midwifery program and started a birth center. While we were there I attended a lovely birth with her and was drawn into her care of these women. However, we had one patient, Marie Carmel, who ended up needing to be transferred to a free hospital in the area after laboring for hours and not having any change. When the baby started having some difficulty, we decided to take her in. This is a hard decision when you know the kind of care you will be taking a patient into.



Marie Carmel, still laboring (with O)

So...here is the bad news - the free hospitals in Haiti are places NO woman should ever go. Blood and amniotic fluid on the ground, dirty stretchers to lay on, disrespectful (bordering on abusive) doctors and nurses (who spoke Spanish...not the language that the patients speak), and not a single BP cuff to be found...let alone a doppler. We had to leave this beautiful woman, who had worked with us so well in labor, to a staff who said "maybe we'll do a c-section, if we can't get the baby out with IM pitocin". This broke my heart. Thankfully this story ends well, because we returned back to this hospital a few hours later, picked her up and found a temporary earthquake field hospital who had a surgeon who listened to midwives and did surgery quickly. Marie Carmel has a sweet baby girl.


She is here

Here is more GOOD news - there are good hospitals in Haiti that these women can go to. But...they need to pay about $1000 for the c-section. The birth center just does not have the money to provide this. So, I, and a number of my friends, are running the LA Rock 'n' Roll half-marathon on October 24th in an attempt to raise money for c-sections when they are necessary. Our goal is $20,000 for 20 women - this should last about 2 years for this birth center,if not more.

We will keep writing updates and you can donate securely here. The ministry that runs the birth center is called Heartline and they area non-profit, so any donations are tax-deductible.

Thank you for supporting me in my love of the people of Haiti.

Sarah Obermeyer


The sweet Carmel Family

“We do not have to be saviors of our world. We are simply human beings, enfolded in weakness and in hope, called together to change the world one heart at a time.” -Jacque Vanier

Dont just take our word for it...take Aaron Hendrick's word for it!

I read this post on another friends’ blog recently. They live in Haiti and spent a day at Heartline working with Beth and Jonna. Here’s what they had to say after their visit:


Beth & Jonna, midwives at Heartline who teach Child Development Classes every Thursday

“We’ve had opportunities to hang out with John and Beth McHoul from Heartline Ministries. Let me give you just an idea of the difference these people are making …

According to (a medical missionary) the work at Heartline is one of the most effective and most needed ministries going on in Haiti. This doctor works with some of the poorest people on the island. According to him, in the demographic that he serves, the mortality rate for children birth to 1 year old is … ready for this? … 1 in 2. Half of the poorest kids in Haiti die before their first birthday.

Many of these babies die during birth as a result of unsterile birthing practices. Many more die during their first year because mothers don’t breastfeed and instead use dirty, contaminated water to give formula to their babies.


Mama's & Babies in Heartline Child Development Class

Heartline is working with these women to give them prenatal care. The women then give birth at Heartline’s birthing center where these women are loved and treated with respect. Then Beth works with each mother to help them get started with breastfeeding their babies.

Heartline turns out lots of healthy mothers and healthy babies.”

Help us support this amazing ministry! Donate now!


Healthy Haitian Baby--we want to see more of these!!

The Reason We Are Running by Shelley Clay

A night of hell/ the maternity ward

Posted by Shelley Clay (at the Apparent Project Blog) Friday, August 27, 2010

Last night almost crushed me.

Let me start at about 5pm. I was just finishing up a nice day at the Apparent Project studio, working with some ladies on beading when Rodney, one of our "street boys" approached me and said his mom was really sick... again.. and would I come to their tent. They live in a tent city of 5000 people. I had the privileged of camping next to them for five days about a month ago and have gotten to know their family ( of seven children in one small tent) pretty well. Rose (Rodney's mom) also works as a jewelry artisan for the Apparent Project. She has had ongoing health issues including chronic migraines forever, so I am used to hearing that she is sick.

Still I took the opportunity to go to their tent to find out what was going on. I arrived at about 5:30pm and she was no where to be found. Apparently she had passed out and been taken to a hospital nearby. Her husband had just come home from work and was also in a daze wondering what had happened to his wife. It's not easy to locate people in Haiti in the maze of tent cities and broken down building, but we decided to go try to find what hospital they had taken her to. Two hospitals later, we found what we were pretty sure was the "tent hospital" that she had been taken to. After arguing with the guards for 15 minutes about gaining admittance to look for her, I walked into a maze of connected tents like a humongous living room play fortress from when I was five years old. Only this was a hospital. We walked from tent to tent in the pouring rain trying to find Rose. We were told time and time and again that nobody by her name had been admitted. We knew that she had to be there though, so we persisted. Finally, we open a tent, and saw this crazy mess of hair sticking out from behind a partial wall for privacy and a grim face showing us that something was seriously wrong. They were hooking Rose up to an IV and things did not look good. They suspected an ectopic pregnancy. Rose was shocked by the positive pregnancy test as she thought she had had her tubes tied when she gave birth to Lori via C-section just last year. Rose is anemic and not strong enough to carry a baby. Not hardly strong enough to go through another surgery, but that's what they started telling us she needed.

They said that they didn't have the equipment they needed or the surgeons to perform the emergency surgery that Rose needed right now or she would probably die. They said that the hospital that could help her was near Cite Soleil- the most dangerous part of Haiti and that if they waited for an ambulance, it would probably be tomorrow before she got there. We quickly turned my hobbling 4runner into a makeshift ambulance and headed down to Cite Soleil in the pouring rain, flooded streets, after dark.

The maternity hospital that we were to take her to was nothing I could have prepared myself for. Even outside, the cries were loud and heart wrenching. Every woman I saw was by herself, crying in the dark in the rain as the pains of childbirth ravaged her. Every woman was without a hand to hold, without a calm voice to reassure, every woman was... alone. It only got worse as I entered the labor and delivery room. There were no less that 50 woman in labor, on the floor, in the hallways, screaming, bleeding, by themselves. No family was allowed to enter. Five valiant doctors were running around doing their best to handle birth after birth, but it was obvious that they had become numb to the pain around them. I looked over at a lady on a dirty plastic covered piece of cardboard for a bed. She was hemorrhaging. Two babies would die that night. So this is hell I thought.

Rose started to cry as she realized she was about to have to have surgery again. She looked at me and said, "Shelley, Map mouri". Shelley, I'm going to die. I pleaded with her not to think that way. You can do this Rose, I said. You can do this for your children and your family. You're going to be ok, Rose.

So why was I there with her? Because I'm white. I had the privileged of being able to stand beside Rose for at least a little while and massage her feet and stroke her head and explain what an ectopic pregnancy was and let her know exactly what to expect. None of the other woman in the room had any idea what was happening to their bodies physically and no one was there to give them an once of comfort. It absolutely broke my heart.

Since when was the miracle of childirth reduced to something out of a horror film? This is life for the ladies in the developing world of Haiti. No education, no rights, no choice, no one to advocate for them.

Rose is ok. She was whisked away to surgery that night- largely because of my big white face in the crowd. Today I checked up on her and they told me that she would die if she didn't have a blood transfusion- translation: they gave her blood, so could we please donate our blood to restock the supply- ok then, I'll work on that this week.

On my way out of the hospital a lady in labor grabbed my arm and started yelling at me in Creole. She thought I might be able to help her. She has been in labor for four days now. Her baby is dead in her womb and no doctor will help her. Neither could I.

My prayer today:
"Lord, don't you see this? Don't you care? Can't you split the heavens and give these precious people some reprieve? Can't you see what they go through? Help us Lord. Help help help help help."

A prayer

Thanks be to you, O God, for the men and women
whose passion for the poor is undying,
whose prayer for the oppressed is tender,
whose defense of the wronged is fierce.
Grant me the strength to cry (& run) for justice,
to be patient for peace,
to be angry for love.
Grant me the grace of a strong soul, O God,
grant me the grace to be strong.

-J.Philip Newell