Casa Materna

I have now completed two weeks of occasionally working at my internships.  I am very interested in the concept of "La Casa Materna".  Women will come into the clinic anywhere from a month to two weeks before their due to have their child.  The women come from far and near and live in the house, where they have access to nurses 24/7 in case of an emergency.  The women range from ages 12 to 42.  Some of the women are first time mothers while others have already had four or five children.  Many of the women are financially challenged and therefor this house allows for them to have all the resources they need in order to safely give birth to their child.  

My first few days at the prenatal clinic consisted of entertaining the women and teaching them different skills. A peace core volunteer was in the process of teaching the women to make cloth diapers, so I joined in and helped the women sew. A few days later, I taught the women to make friendship bracelets.  This was slightly more difficult because I could tell the women were getting frustrated with me, while the point of the activity was to be relaxing.