New Dar a Luz project starting on Island of Guanaja
We recently started a new Dar a Luz program off the coast on the island of Guanaja at the island’s two healthcare centers. In addition to bringing donations, we have given seminars for the medical staff on gentle birth and life saving obstetrical skills, and started a new midwife student group with four students. Guanaja is one of Honduras’s three Bay Islands, and transport during births is an issue because there is no hospital on the island, nor the ability to provide c-section in case one is needed. Transport is often not available, or too expensive, and some women cannot afford to go to the mainland to wait out the last weeks of their pregnancy there. Because of these factors, we are teaching skills to medical providers such as newborn resuscitation, managing postpartum hemorrhage, breech birth, shoulder dystocia, gentle birth techniques, and particulary nutrition during pregnancy for optimal outcomes. It is our vision to built a clinic in Guanaja where a surgery room would be available in case of emergency c-sections.