COHI in Cooperation with the Israel Childbirth Education Centre (ICEC) and Leledet Em Sponsors Ten Palestinian and Israeli Health Professionals for Neonatal Resuscitation Training

5/17/07 – Circle of Health International is thrilled to share with you the latest activities of its Israeli-Palestinian Coexistence Midwifery project.

Through the hard work and funding of the ICEC and the Leledet Em staff, several Israel- and Palestine-based COHI supporters and critical financial support from COHI friends around the world, a delegation of ten women's health professionals (midwives, OB/GYNs, and nurses) from the West Bank joined a group of Israeli women's health professionals to attend a training in Jerusalem on neonatal resuscitation, given by Karen Strange, CPM of The Midwifery Management of Neonatal Resuscitation, newbornbreath.com. Karen presented cutting-edge material on neo-natal transitional physiology and cord clamping. Participants received essential knowledge and simple tools to help newborns integrate the challenges faced during the peri-natal period.

This was the first official activity of COHI’s coexistence project, and it was a great success. The Director of Midwifery at Red Crescent Hospital in East Jerusalem, Tamam Olwan, is excited about the promise this training provided and hopes that her staff of midwives from around the West Bank will be able to attend additional trainings with their Israeli counterparts. As Tamam says so eloquently, "Midwives speak the same language everywhere: mothers, babies, and supporting women in need." Mindy Levy, home birth midwife in Israel, is also extremely hopeful that this is just the beginning of what will be many shared gatherings of midwives from both sides of the conflict.

The next goal of this initiative is to provide a Hebrew language course for the midwives working within the West Bank to be supplemented with midwifery-specific terminology created and supervised by the Israeli participants of this project, many of which are midwifery educators within Israel. COHI and its partner midwives would also like to see adequate funding secured for a three-day workshop for the participants to come together to develop standards of practice for both midwife populations attempting to create such protocols within their medical systems.

Please donate to support this innovative, effective, and much needed initiative by clicking here. To learn about getting more involved, email info[at]cohintl.org. Thank you, as always, for your continued support, and we look forward to sharing more news of this program with all of COHI's supporters.

Warm regards,
Sera Bonds, MPH
Founder Circle of Health International
serabonds[at]hotmail.com