COHI Family Grows with New Baby and New Supporters in Sweden and Philadelphia

Proud parents Sera and Adam Rosenbloom welcome Naz to the world!

Naz Menno Rosenbloom
Born October 1, also Rosh Hashanah and the Eid (last feast of Ramadan!). Named after the city where he was born, Nazareth, and Adam's mother's father whose anniversary of his death was today. Weight at birth was 8.8 lbs and length as 22 inches.

The labor was everything I'd ever hoped it would be: deeply hard, gratifying, and raw. Adam was a rock and was with me contraction after contraction for all 30 hours. We labored at a birth center in the Galilee and were attended by two midwife friends of mine here, they were amazing. The hours we labored we walked in the gardens, danced to music prepared by my sister (awesome mixes of Bruce Springsteen, Pat Benatar, and other such inspiring faves to me), and spent lots of time in the water in the tub at the birth center. Everything I'd ever hoped for. We really had a great time.

However, after 30 hours of long, hard labor I was stalled out at 7 centimeters (for about 8 hours) and little Naz had not even entered the birth canal. We all decided it was best to transfer to the private Arab hospital in Nazareth. Upon arrival I decided with calm and contentment to have a cesarean, as the idea of laboring with an epidural for a more hours with little hope of moving him down was too much for me. So, Mindy our midwife and I headed into a surreal, uneventful surgery and Adam awaited the arrival of Naz to join him in the nursery so he wouldn't be alone. Given the circumstances, as lovely as it could be. Really.

We returned to the birth center a few days later for some recuperation, water and cranial/sacral therapy, and to try to catch up with all that transpired in our bodies and spirits in the last week. We arrived home in Be'er Sheba last night to a clean house, a stocked fridge, and meals that keep arriving provided by our friends in Adam's program here. What a wonderful community we feel a part of.

Thanks for the love, keep it coming. We are doing well all in all. The current focus for us is that I am having some trouble nursing while doing my best to not get swept under by the emotions and hormones shifting inside of me. A full time job, both.

More to come, promise!

Sera Bonds, MPH
Founder, Circle of Health International

Sudan Midwifery Training


Sudanese woman with her baby

Erica Meadows, Sudan Program Manager, has been busy meeting with our local partner, Sudan Fertility Care Associates, to plan training for at least 200 village midwives in life saving skills, starting in Khartoum State as an initial pilot project and adding other areas as possible. According to the Sudan Household Survey of 2006, there is an extremely high maternal mortality rate, reported to be 1,017 deaths per 100,000 cases. Due to the conflict situation in the country, there is a need for improved health access and training, particularly for the large number of internally displaced persons in Khartoum State. Approximately one-third of the estimated 7 million population of the Sudan resides in Khartoum State. The majority of deliveries are home deliveries by midwives. The planned activities for the pilot project include:

  • Develop a syllabus jointly with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and Sudan Fertility Care Association (SFCA) for training village midwives
  • Select trainees with MOH and SFCA partners
  • Conduct training
  • Provide birth kits to participants

COHI is very excited to get this new work off the ground. Please contact Erica Johnson at ejohnson[at]cohintl.org for more information.

Ride for Women in Crisis

COHI is happy to announce an upcoming event hosted by the Women's Social Collaborative in Philadelphia. On December 6, 2008 at 9:00am, join Women's Social Collaborative for a bicycle ride fundraiser to benefit COHI's programs in Tanzania, Israel/Palestine and Sudan.  The ride will begin at the Water Works, by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and continue along the Bike Path to Valley Forge. More information soon available here.

Peaceful Coexistence Midwives Present at International Conference


From left to right: Palestinian coordinator for COHI Salam Kanaam, working with Palestinian and Israeli participants on a small group exercise, May 2008

Here are some excerpts of emails sent from midwives Aisha Saifi and Leslie Wolff from the International Kangaroo Mother Care Conference in Uppsala, Sweden, where they presented “Skin to Skin After Birth: An Israel-Palestine Midwife Coexistence Project”. Kangaroo Mother Care is a way to help reduce hypothermia and infections and to support newborns, especially those born preterm or with low birth weight, to feel stimulated, nurtured and loved through skin-to-skin contact with mother, exclusive breastfeeding and keeping mother and baby together even in the midst of medical intervention, a challenge in many hospital settings. See here for more information.

Oct 6: Well, the situation is this: THE PRESENTATION WAS A HUGE SUCCESS!! Unbelievable -- we were applauded for a long time! People stood on line waiting to tell us how they felt about us, how inspiring, tears in eyes when thinking of the seeds of peace, etc, etc…I wrote down some of the things they said so I wouldn't forget…some of the famous speakers of the conference came to congratulate and hug us…………………

Oct 7: Another really successful day for us -- the midwife meeting was attended by 35 midwives, neonatologists (one from Iran who greeted us very warmly, after hearing our presentation for the second time!) and NICU nurses -- the topic was Skin to Skin for healthy newborns... There was a terrific discussion after our presentation and that of two nurses that work in the postpartum ward of Uppsala University hospital...The whole meeting was from 18:15 to 20:30, with refreshments and photo taking and such a good atmosphere- stories were told about mother-baby care in Vietnam, Spain, Portugal, USA and of course: Uppsala...All day people came up to us to give us a good response to our presentation yesterday...and the lectures were really SOOOOO interesting. Aisha sends her love. LOVE, HUGS AND KISSES, Les

In our presentation we showed photos and told of the aims, values and past and present projects of COHI, described the present situation concerning the practice of Skin to Skin in the hospitals of each of our countries - and our mutual plans for trying to promote Skin to Skin after birth -- bringing about change in the near and distant future. Our final words were "We believe that peaceful births are a foundation for peaceful societies". Our final words at the presentation, with a photo of 2 Israeli midwives hugging two Palestinian midwives was: MIDWIFERY IN PEACE. PEACE.

Women and men told us they had tears in their eyes to see and hear us talk " 2 voices, one symbol of peace ", "Remarkable", -- we got a really long strong applause at the conference -- people stood in line waiting to tell us how wonderful it was to see and hear us, giving us huge hugs, etc.. We hope that during the next few days we will have another opportunity to spread the word about COHI itself…I think our presence together and the first few minutes of our presentation did more than anything to spread the word…We'll be in touch. MIDWIFERY IN PEACE, Leslie and Aisha

Circle of Health International is a 501c3 nonprofit organization supporting the empowerment of conflict- and disaster-affected women through the provision of women's health initiatives. Learn more and get involved at www.cohintl.org.