Support Kaqchikel midwives in Guatemala

The Golden Minute is an extremely important 60 second window to make sure an infant is breathing his or her first breaths of air and to check to see if the infant is not in any distress. This is an extremely important and can be nervewraking if a medical professional is not trained for the sitaution. 

In rural Guatemala, the majority of women are not able to go to a hospital to give birth or many women prefer to stay at home and have a midwife. The majority of midwives are well trained and have a great deal of experience. They are often viewed as leaders in the community and provide new information and resources to their patients and other women in the community. 

For over 7 years we have been collaborating with midwives in Guatemala and we have implemented several successful projects, including a continuing education program and curriculum, to teach practicing lay midwives about new themes in midwifery and to reinforce key skills, such as neonatal resuscitation; and community outreach programs to improve management of high risk pregnancies and newborn infants in rural outlying communities. We provide ongoing training to midwives who have been with us for many years and we are always open to training new midwives.

Recently, we provided training in neonatal resuscitation for 90 midwives and 30 of them who had never received the training before! It was a fun 3 days as we gathered together in different communities to spend 5 hours discussing the importance of the golden minute and how to do it, and then practivcing the life saving techniques. After each training we gathered together for lunch. We shared laughs and stories over chicken soup with delicious corn tortillas.