Tibetan Natural Birth and Health Training Center

Land has been broken in the construction of the first Women’s Health, Birth Center and Training Facility. Land was donated and permits secured in 2005; the design of the facility was approved this year by local and provincial authorities and building is underway!! Tibetan Natural Birth and Health Training Center will be a large Tibetan style home built around a center courtyard with room for families to stay pre and post delivery in addition to exam rooms, pharmacy, offices.

The center will be modeled after free-standing birth centers common throughout the US and will provide a high standard for cleanliness and comfort that is currently unavailable in this region. Fees will be based on a sliding scale, but no woman or family will be turned away due to lack of resources. The center will not only be a place for safe delivery, but also a training facility for community midwives and a place of support for rural Tibetan women. This health and educational facility will be the first center of its kind in all of Tibet, operated by and for Tibetan people, in their language!

The frame and building infrastructure including outer walls and foundation of the building are underway and we expect to complete the project by the end of 2007.

With Tibetan Healing Fund’s guidance and the very experienced Dr. Tsering Kyi, Obstetrician/Gynecologist, the center will provide an economically accessible facility for women and children’s health services and education including pre and postnatal care, delivery, child care and nutrition. The center will integrate Tibetan medical theory, culture and traditions with Western interventions to provide locally acceptable, culturally suitable and medically sound approaches to healthcare.