Women, families and society – healthier choices and
a peaceful future
Several years ago, Indian economist, academic and Nobel
Prize winner Amartya Sen summarised his thinking about development
in terms of freedom, elaborating a view of poverty defined
by an absences of substantive freedom, ‘capabilities’
or choices. Freedom is both constitutive of development and
instrumental to it; in other words, there are many different
but interconnected types of freedom. This essence of Sen’s
much deeper and more far-reaching theories on development
and the predicament of the world’s masses that live
in poverty is applicable in many of the day-to-day scenarios
of people’s lives - even starting before and during
birth.
In Indonesia, where maternal and infant mortality remain amongst
the highest in Asia, freedom to choose about health care and
birthing options is unfortunately not available to all. The
interrelated issues of poor nutrition, education, low incomes
and access to quality health services mean that many of Bali’s
women and babies do not have the appropriate advice and care
they need. Yayasan Bumi Sehat, or the Healthy Mother Earth
Foundation, in Nyuh Kuning village near Ubud is a non-profit
organisation that addresses these issues, bringing people
choices about birthing and increasing their freedom in relation
to reproductive rights. Specifically, they enable women choices
about natural family planning and natural births.
The foundation started informally over 15 years ago, when
American midwife Robin Lim recognised the need for safe and
reliable support for local village women during pregnancy
and birth. Working with family members, neighbours, friends
and other volunteers, she developed a village-based ‘clinic’
that has since become a busy centre of activity supporting
people in different ways. Importantly, the birthing centre
is open and free for anybody, with donations made by patrons
according to their ability to pay.
During the past 3 years, Yayasan Bumi Sehat has grown as an
organisation, consolidated and expanded. It assisted 460 births
in 2006 and runs a weekly (Monday) clinic with alternative
health providers offering acupuncture, osteopathy and other
services for local people. They have initiated local environmental
programs and have recently started a youth centre with training
in life skills, English and computer skills, and are trying
to be more active in HIV/AIDS education. A sister organisation
has also been established in Aceh, where Bumi Sehat staff
and volunteers are ‘servants of peace’ helping
in a myriad of small ways to support individual and community
healing after the 2005 tsunami.
Bumi Sehat’s main goal is to achieve a higher standard
of maternal and child health in Bali, and it is in this endeavour
that they are also increasing freedoms. Ibu Robin Lim and
her team have a profound knowledge of plants and herbs useful
for women and labour, which they utilise to enable women and
babies a natural birthing experience. In a country where medical
interventions in the birthing process are very common amongst
the middle and upper classes, whilst important life-saving
interventions are not accessible for the poor (see www.prb.com;
www.unicef.org/indonesia), the Bumi Sehat clinic provides
an essential service. Bumi Sehat promotes and provides for
gentle births, which reduce trauma during a critical life
event and therefore contribute to a peaceful future. This
small clinic in Bali is the pioneer of water births in Indonesia,
being the first place where assisted water births are offered
and serving as a training ground for staff from Rumah Sakit
Bunda (hospital) in Jakarta, who are developing their skills
in water births. Creating these options increases freedoms
for local people as well as for foreign residents in Bali
who seek a natural birthing experience in the hands of experienced,
committed carers.
News from Bumi Sehat is that their midwives were recently
the keynote speakers at the first Indonesian Breastfeeding
Conference, where they shared their expertise in culturally-appropriate
methods for promoting breastfeeding. A comprehensive booklet
about the importance of breastfeeding has also been produced
in Indonesian language, targeting fathers/men, but also appropriate
for a general community audience. With further financial support,
this booklet can be reproduced and disseminated more widely
– ideally throughout all community health centres in
the country.
Other news is that Bumi Sehat has outgrown its premises and
urgently requires more space to develop the facilities needed
to accommodate the increased demand for their services. The
women seeking natural, safe and affordable births at Bumi
Sehat do not come from Nyuh Kuning village catchment alone,
but rather are increasingly coming from further a field, thus
challenging the organisation’s ability to cope in their
current setting. Robin Lim and the Bumi Sehat family dream
of owning a plot of land to get their clinic and other activities
more established – a freedom that this grassroots team
surely deserves, given their contribution to local development
thus far.
To find out more about Bumi Sehat, including the types of
donations that are sought, visit www.bumisehatbali.org or
visit them in person at Nyuh Kuning village on the south side
of Ubud. Bumi Sehat is so well known in the area that any
local person can give directions.
By Lucy Mitchell
E-mail:writers@baliadvertiser.biz
