Tales From the Field
Share your stories
Our good friend and the musical composer of NO WOMAN, NO CRY, Paul Brill, wrote me a few months ago to tell me about his dear friend Betsey Freeman, a midwife who has spent the past 10 years working with underserved women, both in New York City and throughout Africa. We were eager to hear her about her experiences working on the frontlines and thought you would too. This will be a new spotlight on our site called “Tales from the Field” for inspiring and dedicated people like Betsy, and most recently midwife and CNN Hero, Robin Lim, where they can share their experiences with us.
If you are someone you know would like to contribute to “Tales From the Field” please submit your essay or blog and photos to info@everymothercounts.org.
Betsy Freeman
Betsy has spent a significant portion of her life working as a midwife and humanitarian. After graduating from Emory University, Betsy served two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mauritania, West Africa. Here she witnessed birth for the first time and felt immediately drawn to a career in midwifery. Betsy returned to pursue a master’s degree at Columbia University in New York City. She spent the next eight years working as a midwife in public hospitals around the city, taking care of uninsured women and delivering hundreds of babies. Although her patients were primarily recent immigrants from countries around the world, she still felt the pull to return overseas. Following the devastating Haiti earthquake in 2010, Betsy volunteered on several missions to Port-au-Prince, assisting women and families in the wake of this natural disaster. Later that year she spent six months in Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic working alongside and training midwives in these war torn countries. Currently on mission in Nigeria, Betsy continues to try and help women give birth safely. At a time when maternal health care has finally captured the world’s attention, Betsy hopes to further awareness of this critical issue by speaking candidly about her experiences directly from the field.
Read Betsy's entries about her work in Nigeria:
Robin Lim:
Ibu (mother) Robin is a Certified Professional Midwife, with the North American Registry of midwives and Ikatan Bidan Indonesia. She is a founder and executive director for Yayasan Bumi Sehat, a not for profit organization in Indonesia. .
Lim splits her time between the Bumi Sehat Birth Center in Bali and the Tsunami Relief Clinic in Samatiga Aceh, Sumatra. Along with receiving babies, Ibu Robin is an author. Her childbirth books: After the Baby’s Birth a guide for postpartum women, Eating for Two... Recipes for Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women and Placenta.. the Forgotten Chakra. are available on line by clicking here.
Also the genre of health Lim penned ASI Eksklusif Dong, Anak Alami and Ibu Alami, these books are in Bahasa Indonesia and may be downloaded free.gratis here.
Ibu Robin's novel: Butterfly People is available via Anvil Publishers in the Philippines. Click here.
Ibu Robin's newest book is poetry: The Geometry of Splitting Souls, written to commemorate the Mothers of our world.
Ibu Robin’s support and inspiration is her family, husband Wil, and eight astounding children, ages 35 to 5. Lim’s Filipino Grandmother, Vicenta Munar Lim, was a traditional birth attendant in the Baguio mountain region of Luzon, Philippine Islands. Before during and after WWII she served as a healer and baby catcher for her people. Just as Lim’s “Lola” passed her family tradition of hands-on healing down to her, Lim is already training her granddaughter, Zhouie, in the art and passion of midwifery and service to humanity. Ibu Robin has three grandchildren, all born into her hands.
Ibu Robin was named the CNN Hero of the year for 2011.
Read Robin's entries about her work in Indonesia: