It was an average day, many years ago, when I walked into the village of Letant, Haiti. I went to see Nadia, who was the wife of Joel, the leader of his village. He was a former witch doctor that we had won to the Lord! As I entered the “mud hut” of Nadia, I heard groaning. There was a midwife there, ready to help her with her childbirth. Quickly, when the baby came and the cord appeared, I watched as Joel reached under the dirty mattress and took out a rusty razor blade! Before I could yell, “Stop,” the local midwife cut the cord of his wife, Nadia, with that “rusty razor blade,” and soon a baby was born! I could hardly breathe, knowing that the cord had been contaminated… but, it got worse.

Nadia started bleeding and before you could blink, Joel reached into the corner of his hut and grabbed some dirty rags. He handed them to the midwife, who packed them up against Nadia to stop the bleeding! Everything happened so fast that I was in a daze!

This was one reason we started our Birthing Center! Haitian women give birth in some pretty dirty areas, and often the mother would die in childbirth. (Many of the children here in our Love A Child Children’s Home came to us when their mothers died during childbirth.)

That’s why we started our beautiful Birthing Center… mostly to save the lives of the mothers. This is why there are so many orphanages in Haiti! Poor Haitian mothers come to us from everywhere. They travel dangerous paths, they cross through armed gangs, or climb down steep mountain peaks on foot, on donkeys… or on a moto to come here. In addition to medication, consultation, and labs, ultrasounds are also free. Christian music is played and there are “rocking chairs on the porch” for nervous fathers! It is “first class” for the poor! Thank you, partners, who helped with this project, and thank you, Lord, for this wonderful project!

Sherry