“Taking MAP out to the Maasai Village”
Sharon Bogonofsky Parker from Billings Montana was hoping to deliver a baby during the three days she spent out in Maasai land. Alas no baby would cooperate, but she was able to work with the women on some safer birthing ideas.
Three of our long term volunteers pictured below, Ashley Berlin, Mariya Halaipi, and Jennifer Pappas along with Sharon headed out to a village to spend a few days working with Maasai women. We lose so many Maasai moms during childbirth that Sharon, a nurse practitioner, wanted to see if she could help. This was her second seminar out in the village but the first for her to spend some nights out there. We were a little uncertain about them spending the night at first but after seeing a wonderful tent lodge available for them, it looked pretty safe.
Maasai women prefer to birth at home, they also believe that because of their slender frame and very narrow hips (typical traits for Maasai) that they should try to have small babies. So they starve themselves and sometimes eat grass to make themselves vomit during pregnancy. They had asked Sharon why Maasai women faint during childbirth. It was obvious to us that they did not eat enough calories to do the hard work of childbirth.
Sharon showed them pictures of babies in the womb, something they had probably never seen before. They were excited to see what babies looked like inside the tummy. She had also brought a Doppler so if anyone was pregnant they could hear the babies heartbeat. She wanted them to see that it was a real little person in there and that they needed to eat properly to protect it. Hearing the heartbeat of your baby should be a great motivator to eat better and be healthy for your baby.
Sharon had started the class with a male interpreter who after trying to interpret some female anatomy terms quickly decided it was too much for him so he found a women to help interpret into Maasai. Phillipo pictured below had to bow out after a few minutes.
Sharon had brought a baby doll with a sample womb to show them how to deliver a baby, head first, how to turn if it is not and some first important things to do for the baby. She also gave out some of her safe birthing kits with a pill that stops hemorrhaging, one of the main reasons many of these women die during childbirth.
The older women who deliver babies got to spend some extra time with Sharon. They are also the ones who do the FGM cutting which is something that makes birthing much harder for these women and also kills many young girls. The practice is illegal in Tanzania but many Maasai men will not marry a woman who is not circumcised so the girls still submit to it.
As the women left the seminar we could see from their smiles in the picture below that they had a good time. I always love to see the Maasai women come in for a seminar. Sometimes in their drab, dusty world overgrazed by cattle and goats they are the only colorful thing to be seen on the horizon.
Doing something like this was a bit out of their comfort zone and ours too as we watched Ashley, Jen, Maria and Sharon drive off to sleep out in the Maasai world. But stretching a bit out of comfort zones seems to be good for all of us. I love the idea that each of us should sometime in our life “do something that requires a gospel explanation.” Knowing Sharon she would say God was the reason for this successful trip. I know He is certainly with us each day as we care for the 51 babies and children in our care today back at Neema Village!
So stretch out there, do something different and watch God work!
Dorris and Michael