|
In This Issue
Charis
"Communication, Teaching, and Coaching" Workshop
was held February 4, 2017
Charis Family
Annaiah Walker
Charis Cuisine
Spicy Buffalo
Cauliflower Wingz with Creamy Potato Salad
Charis Around the World
Childbirth PATHS
International
To enjoy past newsletters, visit the archives:
Newsletter Archives
Attention Aspiring Midwives!
You will love the flexible, thorough, distance academics
course offered through Charis Childbirth!
Check it out!
Want to serve childbearing families as a Certified Doula or Childbirth
Educator?
Become trained and certified through Charis Childbirth!
Take a look
at our unique certification process!
If you seek a school that offers the convenience of self-paced distance
learning, personal mentors for each student, a commitment to the highest
excellence in education, a family-like network of students and birth
professionals, and education from a Christian perspective, Charis may be just
the right fit for you!
Update
Charis Membership
We at Charis are extremely grateful for our wonderful members.
This past year, your dues have made it financially possible for
us to creatively correspond with people in areas of the world
where internet is spotty at best. Having all forms of
communication available for us is essential if we are going to
successfully train birth professionals in the far reaches of the
earth. As our community of members grows, there will be more
funds available for even more world-impacting outreach. Thank
you!
Membership is due every December 31 for the coming calendar
year. So, if you became a member on or before December 31,
2016, your dues should be mailed by the middle of December,
2017, to be sure it is received in time. If you become a member
sometime in 2017, then your membership renewal is not due until
December 31, 2018.
You can send your
membership form and $30 dues to:
Charis Childbirth
2575 N. Toledo Blade Blvd., Suite 3
North Port, FL 34289
For more information
Visit the
Charis
Web site
for course description and outline.
Contact Us
Charis Childbirth
2575 N. Toledo Blade Blvd., Suite 3
North Port, FL 34289
www.charischildbirth.org
Kristin Schuchmann ~ Executive Director
Cell (941)441-6410
http://happyhealthyliving.wordpress.com/
Susan Oshel ~ Director of Midwifery Studies
Look us up
Our
Newsletter
Click
here to Subscribe
Everyone is welcome!
Enjoy our newsletter every other month. We welcome comments and suggestions! If
you need help with your opt-in mailing or wish to send Newsletter articles or
comments,
contact:
Our Director's Heart
Eric and Carole-Lee Schuchmann welcoming
little Emma!
In the peace
and safety...
Our family received the most precious of gifts after the last Charis
e-newsletter came out! In the early morning of December 29, 2016, Emma Rose
Schuchmann was delivered in the peace and safety of my home by my sweet
daughter-in-love Carole-Lee. I was once again blessed to be the hands into which
a grandbaby was born! Carole-Lee is such a wonderful mother, my son Eric is, of
course, completely smitten with his baby girl, and big brother Eric is
absolutely in love with "his" baby. It worked out that all of my children were
here for Christmas, making Emma's birth-day extra festive.
We are blessed where I live that birth can be safe and peaceful. That is not the
case everywhere in the world. In some places, birth attendants lack the
training, supplies, or equipment necessary to keep mom and baby safe. In some
places, women are abused during labor. In far too many places, peace and safety
do not exist for birthing women, only fear. I can't just sit around in my comfy,
peaceful, safe home-birthing community and turn a blind eye to the precious
women and babies who are suffering and afraid.
On March 1, 2017, I will be leaving to spend about 3 weeks in Kenya to follow up
on some work that was started by Charis midwifery student Jannekah Guya, and I
will address all of those things. Accompanying me on this trip are Brooke Neale,
Donor Relations Intern
for
Childbirth Paths
International, whose strengths beautifully complement my own (meaning she is
good at what I'm not good at), and Kenyan Charis midwifery student Lillian
Achieng Odhiambo, who has discovered five groups of traditional birth attendants
in different towns who need more training and supplies. We will spend about a
week and a half traveling to those five towns to bring supplies and offer
training specific to the needs of each group.
The second half of our trip will be spent in the city of Nairobi, the capital of
Kenya. In hospitals in Kenya, the C-section rate is very high and it is common
for women to be beaten with a cane if they cry out during labor, two things
worth working toward improving. We feel that introducing doulas as an important
part of the birth team can be an answer for both of those problems. Studies have
shown that the presence of a doula reduces the chances of a C-section and it
seems reasonable to assume that a doula's presence will also reduce the chances
of abuse. To this end, I will facilitate a Charis "Labor Support" workshop for
some local women where they will acquire valuable labor support skills so they
can begin calling themselves doulas.
We will also reconnect with some of the young ladies we met at the
Rehema House when I was
there 4 years ago and meet new residents who have since moved in. The teens at
the Rehema House all deliver in a local hospital and, unfortunately, many
deliver via C-section. Our hope is that the newly trained doulas will be
available to serve the teens at the Rehema House. A birth center for the girls
at the Rehema House and other poor women in Nairobi is on our hearts! What are
the logistics for such an undertaking? Brooke will use her expertise to research
what it will take to start a birth center outside of Kibera, one of the world's
largest, poorest slums. If we have our way, the future for birthing women in
Kenya will become brighter and brighter.
Please pray for us as we travel. Pray for the birth workers who attend our
training. Pray for Lilian as we search for her new home and work in Nairobi,
where she will acquire a midwifery apprenticeship. Please pray for the rest of
our funding to come in this week.
Charis Childbirth has linked arms with Childbirth PATHS International for this
trip and tax-deductible donations for our trip can be sent to Childbirth PATHS
International. (Details are found in Amy Elliott's article
HERE.). Your prayers and financial support will help us continue this work
toward sustainable, safe, effective maternity care for the precious people in
Kenya. Thank you!!!
Toward peaceful, safe birth for all women,
Kristin Schuchmann, LM, CPM
Executive Director, Charis Childbirth, Inc.
Eric Schuchmann and newborn Emma Rose
|
|
