Despite initial lack of finances, the UK trip served to be a wonderful visit on many fronts. Having managed to do the neonatal resuscitation course and the breech workshop with Jane Evans, I also was fortunate to be able to attend Michel Odent and Liliana's doula course just before returning to South Africa. I returned inspired and having met many special people.
I need to thank Odette and her family in particular for their generosity in sharing their home with me. It was a gift to spend time with such a warm and welcoming family and to talk not stop (as I fear many midwives do) about birth and midwifery. The generosity of Odette and Regina in donating equipment to Busfare Babies was also completely unexpected and welcomed, thank you both.
Being in the UK also presented the opportunity to meet with a group from the Netherlands who is interested in sponsoring a vehicle for Busfare Babies in order to facilitate accessible care to women and to enable early pregnancy screening to be done in rural areas. Thank you to Jan and Peter and all others involved for generously paying for me to travel to Amsterdam to meet with them. It is refreshing and inspiring to realize how many people there are, who are interested in changing things for the better for women, babies and birth.
Fund raising ideas at present involve arranging an event in London next summer. So we have a moment or two to decide what exactly that will be. I will keep this updated on the blog too as we go forward in planning the event.
Since my return, I have visited some of the babies that were born just before I left. It brings me joy to see how they have grown and how their mothers are carefully, exclusively breast feeding their babies despite this not being the cultural norm in the area.
Thank you to 25/40, who in my absence, have donated more blankets from the industrious and generous seamstresses in the USA. I will be doing the rounds soon to hand out these new blankets to the latest babies, and will post some photos here of those occasions.
