My Birth Experience Was Beautiful

María is a young mother living in the western highlands of Guatemala, an extremely rural and remote area mostly inhabited by Indigenous Mayan peoples. Home births are the norm in this environment, but unattended home births come with a high risk – the area has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.

Rather than a home birth, María chose to have her baby at one of our birthing centers, a Casa Materna, where women can access safe, medically sound, and culturally sensitive maternal care. Our Casa Maternas utilize nurses, volunteers, and women’s care groups to provide education, outreach, and comprehensive maternal health services; each one is strategically located within three miles of the communities they serve.

As a first-time mother, María was undoubtedly nervous about her delivery, but says that “thanks to this support, I felt calm, safe, and confident.”

“The environment was peaceful and comfortable,” she shares.

María proudly poses with her new baby

One tool to aid in a calm delivery is a birth plan. A birth plan is essentially a way of communicating your priorities and needs to your care team during labor and delivery. A birth plan can help mothers feel empowered during birth by ensuring that they feel confident enough to make their own decisions, are educated on the stages of labor and delivery, and are familiar with medical devices and techniques that may be used. During a recent reporting period, every pregnant woman in one of our service communities designed her own birth plan during home visits from trained medical professionals.

“The nurses always respected my decisions,” says María of her birthing experience, “Thanks to what the nurses taught me, my birth experience was beautiful.”

We offer more than just a safe place to give birth – all mothers who utilize one of our birthing centers receive a postpartum visit within 48 hours of the birth of her baby, and throughout her pregnancy, every pregnant woman receives at least three prenatal visits. These little actions have a big impact – in our project areas, maternal mortality has decreased 63%, and infant mortality has been reduced by 35%.

Your support of Impact Global Health Alliance can help more mothers experience the beauty of safe birth.