Shalena King, RN
c/o Midwives for the Dominican Republic
P.O. Box -------
Raleigh, NC 27610
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Dear Contact,
We are a group of American Midwives and Midwifery students who are dedicated to decreasing the Maternal/Infant mortality rate in the Dominican Republic through high-quality Midwifery care, education, and training of local Midwives. Although the rates have been declining through the years, the Dominican Republic continues to have moderate to high rates of Maternal and Infant mortality, and even higher rates of Maternal and Infant Morbidity. These rates are astounding considering the fact that 98% of the infants born in the Dominican Republic are born with a skilled birth attendant present. The World Health Organization defines a skilled attendant as “an accredited health professional – such as a midwife, doctor or nurse – who has been educated and trained to proficiency in the skills needed to manage normal (uncomplicated) pregnancies, childbirth and the immediate postnatal period, and in the identification, management and referral of complications in women and newborns”. Why then are the Maternal and Infant mortality and morbidity rates still high? Although there has not been a formal presentation on this answer, we believe that the lack of Midwives in the Dominican Republic has attributed to these numbers.
The United Nations Population Fund, who recently released a 180 page publication titled “THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S MIDWIFERY 2011: DELIVERING HEALTH, SAVING LIVES” states “Maternal mortality and morbidity cannot be reduced without midwives and others with midwifery skills. Yet the numbers of these skilled providers have not significantly increased”. The Dominican Republic has NO recognized Midwives working in the country except those that volunteer their time in missions each year for maybe 2-4 weeks at a time. The country desperately needs Midwives and we are passionately working on changing the culture to one of acceptance and collaboration. The current maternal death rate in the United States is 7: 100,000 births. In the Dominican Republic the rate is 159: 100,000 births. 22 times our rate! The infant mortality rate in the United States is 6: 1,000 births, in the Dominican Republic it is 22: 1,000 births! Why is this happening if 98% of the women receive prenatal care and are delivered by skilled birth attendants??? This has been termed by Dominican medical experts as “The Dominican Paradox”. The answer, we believe, lies in Midwifery.
We are committed to decreasing these horrible statistics slowly but surely but we need your help. We are committed to starting one freestanding Birth Center in the city of Santiago, Dominican Republic. The Birth Center will be staffed by Certified Professional Midwives, assisted by volunteer Midwives, and Midwifery students. Our goal is to become the flagship Birth Center so that other Midwives from other countries will come to the Dominican Republic and set up other Birth Centers throughout the country. We are committed to collaborating with local physicians, educating them on a variety of issues that we have seen in the hospitals in the country and training local Dominican Nurses who would like to become Midwives in order to serve the women and infants of their country. We will collaborate with Midwives for Haiti who have an astounding program of which we can only dream of arriving to the level that they are now.
We need your support to make this happen. Our Midwives are holding several fundraising events in order to collect donations and support for our upcoming endeavors. Our first step is our Birth Center where we will provide prenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum care (including contraception education and family planning) to all women on a sliding scale and regardless of ability to pay, we will educate Midwifery students in the United States on all Midwifery skills and the history and culture of the Dominican Republic in hopes that they will volunteer their services to the people of the Dominican Republic once they are certified, even if only for 1-2 weeks per year. Once the Birth Center is operational and we have enough donors, we will start a small training program for a select group of Dominican nurses that will train them in Midwifery skills and assist them in receiving their certification from the United States which will prepare them to return to their home towns of the Dominican Republic and do their part in decreasing Maternal and Infant mortality and morbidity rates in the country. For this program we will recruit Dominican Nurses who have a desire to remain in their country and give back to their communities.
We have many costs associated with this dream. We will have operational costs, equipment costs, costs of supplies, advertising, staff, etc. We hope that your company can help us with this very important project. Whether it be with a financial donation or a donation of equipment or supplies, we would be forever grateful. The Birth Center will house a large picture frame at the entrance, where for your generosity, around a picture of the Birth Center, we will place a your company/organization’s logo along with the logos of other donor companies/organizations. You will receive a quarterly newsletter informing you of the progress of the Birth Center, each newsletter highlighting a mother and infant whom we will interview so that she may state in her own words how the Birth Center has affected the community. These newsletters will also house the logos of donating companies/organization. You may rest assured that your donation will be used solely for the purpose and benefit of the Birth Center. No donations will be used to pay Midwife staff or employees of the Birth Center. Our goal is simple…to decrease the maternal and infant mortality and morbitity rate in the Dominican Republic through high quality Midwifery care, and education.
Won’t you help us?
Sincerely,
SHALENA KING, RN
MIDWIVES FOR THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
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