Support midwives so that no woman will have to go without vital health care.
Why we care: The women of Chiapas face horrifying realities regarding their sexual and reproductive health.
How we’re solving this: Luna Maya developed the first professional midwife training course, and is the only clinic that offers practical training for midwives in Chiapas
Support The Centro de Partos de San Cristobal “Luna Maya” in building the foundations for healthy, happy families in the poorest areas of Mexico, by providing high quality maternal and reproductive health-care to low-income, at-risk women.
Imagine growing up in Chiapas, the poorest state in Mexico. The women of Chiapas face horrifying realities regarding their sexual and reproductive health. They live in a state with the highest levels of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and the third highest maternal mortality rate (117 women die for every 100,000 births). At the public hospital, medication and supplies are scarce and can cost 2,000 pesos per birth. Yet, the monthly minimum wage for a domestic worker is only 1,400 pesos per month. If women have access to trustworthy and affordable healthcare and family planning services, they will devote more of their time and limited resources to completing school, entering the workforce, and raising their other children.
Luna Maya is dedicated to providing affordable and accessible holistic health care to the most marginalized communities in Chiapas. This year, funding will enable Luna Maya to scale up its health care services which include: prenatal care, fertility, birth and postpartum/lactation support, emergency obstetric care, and safe abortions. The health clinic will also provide bi-weekly trainings for eight midwives to strengthen their skills in providing these services as well as performing pap smears, and providing contraception and pregnancy termination consultations.
Luna Maya is recognized as a truly progressive health care institution across the midwifery world because of its integrative model of care, which celebrates traditional midwives’ knowledge and enhances their skillset with holistic birthing techniques. Luna Maya developed the first professional midwife training course, and is the only clinic that offers practical training for midwives in Chiapas. The organization also developed the first homebirth certification course, carried out at the National School for Nursing and Obstetrics in Mexico City.
Support midwives, healthy mothers and their families so that no woman will have to go without vital health care.
- $50 pays for a pap smear test
- $136 pays for emergency obstetric care per patient
- $400 pays to train one midwife and includes classroom learning and clinical experience in the field