Teaching Midwifery Skills in Tibet
Donation protected
This summer I am volunteering with the Maternal & Child Health Project in efforts to create access to health care for mothers and babies in remote mountain villages of Eastern Tibet. I am joining 2 other midwives for 6 weeks to teach Tibetan women about safe birth practices and learn to become skilled birth attendants in areas where healthcare access is extremely limited. The women and infants of these communities are dying in childbirth at shockingly high rates. According to the Surmang Foundation ,also in eastern Tibet, "Remote Tibetan mothers have a 1 in 15 chance of dying in pregnancy or delivery--3x riskier than a soldier in Afghanistan"
WHO estimated 1 in 33 births results in the mother’s death, compared with 1 in 2,800 in developed countries. Approximately 1 in every 6 to 10 newborns does not survive, however these above figures are likely to be conservative.
Watch this movie ("WE ARE ALL MOTHERS")for more insight on the situation!
The Mother & Child Health Care project is devoted to creating access to health care and improving maternal and child health in the remote, semi-nomadic communities of eastern Tibet. The health care needs in these isolated mountain communities are significant and critical. Villagers and nomads lack access to even the most basic health care.
The intention of this Go Fund Me site is to help me raise money for travel and expenses, and to donate funds to the project. These costs will be around $3,500, an expense I am hoping to cover thru funding, as I will be taking the 6 weeks off from my practice to volunteer in this effort. Any extra funds beyond my costs will be gratefully donated to the project.
The program I am joining began in December of 2003 when HE Garchen rinpoche, a tibetan spiritual master requested Dr. Donna Caplan to help. From 2004-2006 she educated women in lifesaving techniques for preventing and treating postpartum hemorrhage, infection, and other complications. In 2006 five women were selected from the Gargon area to participate in a three-year medical training program with a traditional Tibetan doctor in Nangchen Town. Terri Nash took up efforts last year in 2014 and will return and lead us in the training of more women this summer.
Our goal is to further the training of these dedicated women in necessary labor, delivery and postpartum skills, and to educate the community women in reproductive health. We intend to train as many members of the community in safe birthing techniques as we can,and we will be counseling women and families with general health concerns.
All donations large and small are welcome to help us achieve this goal.
In Deep Gratitude
Tashi Delek!
For those of you not comfortable donating online checks can be sent to:
Iris Wolfson
133 W Phil Ellena St,
Philadelphia, PA 19119
ABOUT ME
Iris Wolfson has maintained a practice in holistic women’s healthcare since 1981. Her care is guided by a strong intuitive sense and a deep spiritual awareness. She is certified as both a nurse midwife and nurse-practitioner, having completed undergraduate work at Albert Einstein Medical Center and Temple University, and graduate studies at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of Newark, NJ. After 25 years of including both home and hospital birth care in her practice,she now devotes her time solely to holistic gynecology, fertility, pregnancy and postpartum support and counseling, and her healing arts practice.
She has been educated in a wide variety of alternative modalities in the US, Europe, and South America, and draws from many cultural and spiritual philosophies. Her studies include herbal medicine, nutrition and vitamin support, homeopathy, flower essences, energy therapies, guided visualization, sound healing, meditation, Native American healing techniques, drumming, and Peruvian shamanism.
In Russia she worked with the International Women’s Health Organization to teach gentle birth practices, and has lectured and taught workshops throughout the US in therapeutic touch, holistic birth and gynecologic care, and shamanic practices.
http://www.iriswolfson.com/
WHO estimated 1 in 33 births results in the mother’s death, compared with 1 in 2,800 in developed countries. Approximately 1 in every 6 to 10 newborns does not survive, however these above figures are likely to be conservative.
Watch this movie ("WE ARE ALL MOTHERS")for more insight on the situation!
The Mother & Child Health Care project is devoted to creating access to health care and improving maternal and child health in the remote, semi-nomadic communities of eastern Tibet. The health care needs in these isolated mountain communities are significant and critical. Villagers and nomads lack access to even the most basic health care.
The intention of this Go Fund Me site is to help me raise money for travel and expenses, and to donate funds to the project. These costs will be around $3,500, an expense I am hoping to cover thru funding, as I will be taking the 6 weeks off from my practice to volunteer in this effort. Any extra funds beyond my costs will be gratefully donated to the project.
The program I am joining began in December of 2003 when HE Garchen rinpoche, a tibetan spiritual master requested Dr. Donna Caplan to help. From 2004-2006 she educated women in lifesaving techniques for preventing and treating postpartum hemorrhage, infection, and other complications. In 2006 five women were selected from the Gargon area to participate in a three-year medical training program with a traditional Tibetan doctor in Nangchen Town. Terri Nash took up efforts last year in 2014 and will return and lead us in the training of more women this summer.
Our goal is to further the training of these dedicated women in necessary labor, delivery and postpartum skills, and to educate the community women in reproductive health. We intend to train as many members of the community in safe birthing techniques as we can,and we will be counseling women and families with general health concerns.
All donations large and small are welcome to help us achieve this goal.
In Deep Gratitude
Tashi Delek!
For those of you not comfortable donating online checks can be sent to:
Iris Wolfson
133 W Phil Ellena St,
Philadelphia, PA 19119
ABOUT ME
Iris Wolfson has maintained a practice in holistic women’s healthcare since 1981. Her care is guided by a strong intuitive sense and a deep spiritual awareness. She is certified as both a nurse midwife and nurse-practitioner, having completed undergraduate work at Albert Einstein Medical Center and Temple University, and graduate studies at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of Newark, NJ. After 25 years of including both home and hospital birth care in her practice,she now devotes her time solely to holistic gynecology, fertility, pregnancy and postpartum support and counseling, and her healing arts practice.
She has been educated in a wide variety of alternative modalities in the US, Europe, and South America, and draws from many cultural and spiritual philosophies. Her studies include herbal medicine, nutrition and vitamin support, homeopathy, flower essences, energy therapies, guided visualization, sound healing, meditation, Native American healing techniques, drumming, and Peruvian shamanism.
In Russia she worked with the International Women’s Health Organization to teach gentle birth practices, and has lectured and taught workshops throughout the US in therapeutic touch, holistic birth and gynecologic care, and shamanic practices.
http://www.iriswolfson.com/
Organiser
Iris Wolfson
Organiser
Philadelphia, PA