Mercy In Action went into the disaster zone in the Philippines in November 2013 to provide emergency care to the pregnant women and infants who survived the typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda destruction and were left without any maternity services. Mercy In Action is now providing support to the local midwives to rebuild their own clinics and birthing centers. We rebuilt one birth center on Leyte island already, and funds are now going toward building materials for a second birth center on Samar island.
This project has the potential to save lives on a massive scale in the years to come by preventing maternal and newborn mortality surrounding childbirth. The community devastated by super typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda in the Philippines is facing the challenge of no where for the pregnant women to give birth safely after the disaster in rural Leyte and Samar islands. Without rebuilt birth centers, the survival of mothers and newborns during pregnancy and childbirth is seriously threatened.
As we help the local midwives to rebuild, they will again be able to give quality prenatal care to pregnant women, thereby preventing premature birth and stillbirths. In their rebuilt facilities, the midwives can again deliver babies in a safe, clean place. Midwives are best suited to assist normal birth in the Philippines, and they give needed emergency treatment and referral when needed. Midwives protect the most important resource a community has-its mothers and its future generation.
Potential is for massive saving of lives in an area now at high risk for maternal deaths and newborn deaths. We expect to see higher rates of survival of the babies being born premature by giving good care, we expect to see lower rates of infection, hemorrhage and other birth complications that would be expected in this kind of a disaster zone. This will be accomplished by getting the local midwives and other health care workers back to work post-disaster, so they can provide good care again.
