To get your own prayer doula button please visit this post.
We are thankful that many of you have asked to pray for our ladies. We're calling those of you who support our pregnant women in this way "Prayer Doulas."
A Doula is someone who provides non-medical support to women and their families during labour and childbirth, and also the postpartum period.
Maybe more of you will join in and pray for the women in our program. We'll try our hardest to keep you up-to-date as each woman delivers or has specific prayer needs. If you haven't felt included in something beautiful in awhile, consider this your invitation to join God as He administers mercy, grace, and justice.
Almost all of the women in our program would be considered a high risk pregnancy in the United States. 90% are anemic. Many are severely anemic. Many are malnourished. All of them live lives that none of us can really understand. Their pregnant bellies rarely ever measure and match their gestation date. Average weight gain during pregnancy in the States is 35-50 pounds. Average weight gain for our ladies for their pregnancies is between 15-20 pounds. In spite of their difficult lives, these precious women we have the pleasure of knowing are joyful, sweet, and faithful to attend prenatals on Thursdays. Because Haiti is not known for living life with the calendar and clock in mind, the due dates we have listed for our ladies are often wrong.
Prayer is no little thing. For each of these women we know that God must come through and work on their behalf. All the odds physically are against them. Every healthy birth at our maternity center is a miracle given the health of our ladies and the obstacles they must overcome. The last numbers we heard for maternal mortality rates in Haiti is 1:17. If that's true, 1 in 17 women will die due to pregnancy related complications in Haiti during their child-bearing years. Becoming pregnant is dangerous business in this country. Our ladies know why we take their pictures. During difficult times we will tell them "There are so many people praying for you right now." They smile.
I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming
conviction that I had absolutely no other place to go.
-- Abraham Lincoln
Thank you for lifting up our ladies to the only one who truly knows their deepest needs. Thank you for praying for us as we try to discern how we can help these ladies best, serve them, encourage them, and hopefully show each woman God's love by the way we value, protect, and respect them.
Christelle
Due December 21
second baby
18 years old
2nd baby
Due January 1
36 years old
Nadine
Due January
fourth baby
26 years old
Stephanie
first pregnancy
Due January 6
19 years old
Kerline
first pregnancy
Due January 17
36 years old
Ijemene
2nd baby
Due January 20
25 years old
Michelene
fourth pregnancy
one living child
Due January 24
26 years old
Revia
first baby
Due January 31
28 years old
Vitana
Djenie
Due February 1
second baby
18 years old
second baby
Pregnant with twins!
Pregnant with twins!
Due in February
26 years old
Dieumatha
1 living baby
last two babies died
Due February 3
29 years old
Beatrice
first baby
Due February 8
29 years old
Fifi
2nd baby
Due February 11
35 years old
Marvena
8th baby
six living children
Due February 11
40 years old
Carol
Due February 14
first baby
40 years old
Fanie
first baby
Due February 22
21 years old
Yveline
third baby
Due March 5
34 years old
Guerline
first baby
Due March 6
31 years old
Jeannise
3rd baby
Due March 14
28 years old
Guerda
Due March
first baby
29 years old
she is deaf 
Nadia
third baby
one living baby
first baby died shortly after birth
Due March 21
31 years old
Etienne
Due March 24
This is her second baby
29 years old
Alline
Due April 4
second baby
23 years old
Faphane
Due April 5
first baby
15 years old
Yanique
Due May 4
first baby
37 years old
Rosena
first baby
Due May 20
22 years old
{{DELIVERED}}
Esther
first baby
DELIVERED October 30
Details of her birth here.20 years old
Mama Emmanuel
fifth pregnancy
2 kids living
lost two of her children in the earthquake
32 years old
Delona
first baby
31 years old
31 years old
DELIVERED October 12
15 comments:
Hi Heather,
I'm a lurker who has been adorning, getting challenged by, and praying hard through your blog for months now. And I just had to leave a comment today because I'm SO excited. Those ladies in Texas had exactly my idea. And I'm so glad that you posted all those names and pictures because I want to join in, too. So now you have a Bible study group in Texas, and one birth-junkie in Michigan committed to praying for all those precious women you are supporting down there.
i have been following your blog since before you moved to Haiti... but have not commented too many times but already pray through many of your posts. THANK YOU i will print out the pictures and pray for each of these ladies. i have had 3 high risk pregnancies that led to all 3 of my boys being born early & 4 miscarriage, have traveled often to 3rd world countries, and my father in law is beginning a ministry in haiti as well, so my heart goes out to each of them as they fight for their very life and the lives of their little ones.
Still praying for Esther...and I will choose a lady for each month...love you guys!
Thank you for sharing the stories of these ladies and their babies. I will be praying for them. Honored to be a prayer doula!!
Praying for Dieumatha - my first baby was due Feb. 2, 2009 - but I miscarried. I have since had two preemie-NICU babies, so I will pray for her and her baby to be healthy, full-term, and complication free.
Abe Lincoln said it all. To my knees I will go on behalf of these ladies and those who will follow after them.
God is the giver of life and I trust that He'll continue to give life to these ladies not just through children but through life in Him as some will faces deep dark trials pre/post delivery.
Midwifery continues to draw me closer as time passes by. I pray for the chance to someday learn enough to assist the woman in developing lands (Africa is home for now)... until and after that time may come I will surrender time in prayer for the work at your birthing center.
They are each so very beautiful! Thank you for posting their photos and some information about each one. What a honor to be able to pray for these beloved children of God.
wow! I am overwhelmed looking and reading about these ladies. You all have such an awesome (as in huge and more than I can imagine) responsibility--the faithless side of me sees all that could go wrong but the faithFULL side of me knows that God's plans for these women are immeasurably more than I could imagine.
blessings,
Carin
Ladies...
Your stories are so moving to me. Isn't it strange how babies...the life we've grown...the life we've lost binds the hearts of women. It breaks the lines of culture.
Thank you for praying for our ladies.
Heather
I'm so excited that you posted all these pictures of these beautiful women. I would also love to join in being a "Prayer Doula" &will have my bible study group in WI join with me.
I love your blog & am always so blessed on how God continues to use you in Haiti.
Thank you for this! It is a prilege to pray for our Haitian sisters. I always pray over the requests that come up on the Heartline blogs, but it will be my great honor to pray for Leslie, Rosemarie, Beatrice, and Marvena specifically.
How is Esther?
Karen in Texas
The due date you have listed for Stephanie is my Haitian-born son's birthday. His birthmom was 19 when she got pregnant, too. I cried when I thought of her going through this in Haiti and knowing she could not keep her son. Stephanie looks so thin. I will pray for all the ladies, but Stephanie will get extra prayers from me. Thank you so much for posting all these photos. I'll be watching. :)
Hello! I've committed to praying for a lady each month, and as my list dwindles, I'm sure I can add to it! :) Specifically, I am praying for Esther, Leslie, Rosemarie, Ijemene, Fanie, and Jeanisse
Marjorie is on my heart, and I will be praying for her! I'm also 32 and due on December 12, so we'll be getting through these last weeks together. Thank you for posting!!
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