After a 2-year pause in activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to resume teaching Mayan comadronas this past March, 2023. We spent our time in the municipality of Chisec in the lowlands of Alta Vera Paz, 6 hours north of Guatemala City. Our hosts, Karren and Rocky Chupa, the founders of Compelling Love Ministries, provided excellent facilities for sleeping, eating and the teaching of our course.
During our 2 weeks, we trained 40 comadronas (traditional midwives), 1 aspiring comadrona, the daughter of one of the practising comadronas (who had taken our course 6 yrs. ago), 1 doctor working in rural Guatemala with another NGO “Choice Humanitarian Guatemala” and 13 local public health nurses. An amazing RN running the nutrition centre and prenatal clinic at the Compelling Love Ministries Centre, not only took our course, but also translated everything from Spanish to Q’eqchi, the Mayan language of the comadronas of this area (for many Spanish is their second language).
It was obvious that all the students understood the various topics and were able to demonstrate their newly learned skills. The health professionals were taught additional emergency skills especially important not only when helping and transporting birthing mothers to distant hospitals, but also as they help 60-70 women/month birth at their poorly equipped Public Health Center. There is a doctor at the clinic, at most, once every 7-10 days. The comadronas and public health personnel were encouraged to have monthly meetings to review and practice the newly taught methods and skills. Every day of our courses, Rocky provided transportation to and from the course and Karren provided lunch for the students and our team.
There are 204 comadronas registered in this municipality and we have been asked to return next year to provide training for those who have not yet taken our course. We will be doing so in March 2024.
This year our team was composed of Dr. Ruth Brighouse, Birte Paschen, our registered midwife and Annette Borkent RN, and our Guatemalan teammates: Cenaida Juarez, our co-ordinator, Gloria Cutuj, our practicing comadrona, and Gaby Castellanos, our nutritionist and comadrona. During our 2nd week, we also had Maryla Crosski, a registered midwife from the UK observe our course in action. She is planning to do her Masters on Global Maternal Health and is keen to study the impact of our project! We were very pleased to have her valuable comments and input and are hopeful that this may be the first opportunity to have actual stats, which can help us fine-tune our approach. She will also be joining our team in 2024.
In communities where we have taught, the comadronas and the Public Health Unit personnel have been giving resounding approval of the courses. The comadronas feel much more confident in their assessments of pregnant women, prenatally and during birth. The health personnel are seeing the comadronas refer many more mothers to them when they determine that there are risk factors that need to be addressed. This important step saves many lives.
The courses were, once again, very well received and during our final talking circles (at the end of each course) we heard from many, how valuable the training was, that the “hands-on” format was vital, and how they felt so grateful for this opportunity. Even the comadronas with up to 45 years of experience said they had learned new skills, and that this was the first time they had a course where they were shown, and then practiced the skills. We had a wonderful graduation ceremony to celebrate the students completing each course and each student received their diploma and 50-page illustrated manual, as well as a kit of supplies to help them during their next number of births. Each participant also received some baby clothes wrapped in a receiving blanket to give to the mother of the next birth they attend.
As we completed our 21st year of this project, we have taught 1,348 people!
We are presently in the midst of restructuring our course and our team. Our Guatemalan teammates for the past years have chosen more local priorities, as we have ventured further and further away from the Lago Atitlán area where they live. Cenaida Juarez, Gloria Cutuj and Gaby Castellanos have given so generously of their time and skills and we wish them well in their new endeavors. We also look forward and are excited about the prospects of new connections with Guatemalan health workers
