Midwives are front-line workers in the Coronavirus pandemic. Mercy In Action operates clinics & birth centers in the Philippines at no charge to the patients and will continue to stay open, though our costs are going up exponentially for food for patients, medicines, gasoline to drive our ambulance, and PPE for staff. With the shutdown of public transportation jeepneys, we are giving rides to each woman in labor, & bringing food to locked-down pregnant women. We are in place to help the poor now
The coronavirus pandemic has caught most of the world off guard. Fortunately, Mercy In Action already provides for care of women and babies during pregnancy, labor & delivery, & postpartum recovery, We expect more patients for birth since hospitals will be full of sick patients. Our resources are being stretched now during the lockdown; we must buy food for lock-down patients who are needy, & drive women to the birth center in labor because there is now no public transportation jeepneys running.
This project will allow us to increase our budget for gasoline for our ambulance to make housecalls, thereby reducing the risk of spreading COVID-19 infection. We will also have fuel to pick up all laboring women who could otherwise not get to our facility for a safe birth. The lock-down has caused massive hunger, so we are buying & delivering food to our pregnant patients. This fund keeps our midwives safe with adequate personal protection gear, & allow us to hire more staff in the pandemic.
The potential long-term impact is enormous if we can stay open during this pandemic, no matter how long it takes. We are an out-of-hospital birthing facility that has the potential to take a huge burden off our local hospitals should they become overwhelmed with sick patients and become unable to handle normal childbirth in a safe manner. We have the potential to help thousands of women give birth safely during this pandemic if we have the resources to feed them and safely deliver their babies.
