This last Saturday, after weeks and months of discussion and deliberation, the board members of The Compassionate Birth Project, were finally able to meet and discuss their ideas and to receive valuable feedback from the midwives working at some of Cape Town’s busiest and highly stressed MOUs (Midwife Obstetric Units) – Mitchells Plain and Hanover Park.
It was a very informal meeting and we all sat in a circle and introduced ourselves. We spoke about our passions and why we were there. We spoke about our children.
Robyn introduced the project and the proposed modules for The Compassionate Care Training Course for Midwives and MOU staff.
We wondered about how these would be received. What would the feedback be? And for us, more than anything, it was of utmost importance that we were not telling these midwives, who work so hard and who have done so for so many years, relentlessly, under conditions, which are far from ideal, what it was that they needed.
We wanted to hear from them what their needs were.
The feedback was amazing. I don’t think anyone of us ever thought it would be received with such open arms.
And such a sense of relief.
Finally!
Finally something for the midwives! Something to take care of and nurture and support the midwives!
These bastions of strength who, day in and day out, make sure, that mothers and babies are alive and safe.
It was a small meeting. A small circle of women in a room in Rondebosch.
But I think to everyone present, the power held in that little drop in the ocean, was tangible.
