Educate moms to reduce maternal mortality rates.

Why we care: Currently, in the Philippines, 11 women die everyday due to preventable complications during pregnancy and childbirth.

How we’re solving this: Nurses and midwives provide education to women and girls on how to have the healthiest pregnancy possible, and also provide them with checkups and vitamins.

The last time Liana was pregnant, she didn’t know what prenatal care was, and never had any checkups. She didn’t take prenatal vitamins or increase her food intake because she worried that the baby would grow too big, which would lead to a more difficult delivery. She didn’t exercise because she thought this would harm the baby, and when she got sick she bought antibiotics without consulting a doctor, not knowing that it could harm her unborn child. When it was time to deliver, she gave birth at home in the company of a traditional healer, who pressed and pushed on her belly, endangering her and her baby’s health. After birth, Liana wanted to clean herself but waited for nine days before bathing, because this is what the traditional healer instructed.

Many women in our communities have experiences similar to Liana’s. Because they haven’t received education on the importance of prenatal health care, they don’t realize that many of their actions contribute to riskier pregnancies, potentially harming themselves and their babies. To combat this, Roots of Health has launched a Healthy Pregnancy Program. Our nurses and midwife provide education to women and girls on how to have the healthiest pregnancy possible, and also provide them with free prenatal vitamins and monthly prenatal checkups. Not only are our clients now more informed on how to have healthier pregnancies, but they also have a better understanding of the process of their baby’s formation, and how various things can affect the baby’s health. When it is time to deliver, our expectant mothers call on our midwife and nurses, who assist them with birth at home, or transfer them to a local clinic in cases of emergencies. Our clients in this program tend to have less traumatic deliveries, healthier, higher-birth-weight babies, and faster recovery times. These mothers are also more likely to quickly establish successful breastfeeding.

Our program is incredibly important in helping reduce maternal mortality, as currently in the Philippines 11 women die everyday due to preventable complications during pregnancy and childbirth. Please support this program to help us ensure healthier mothers and babies for all of the women in our five communities in 2013.