Imagine you are nine months pregnant and today is your due date. You are only 19 years old and having your second baby. You suffered from violence at the hand of your husband before and during the pregnancy. Thankfully, with your own strength and the support of your parents, you managed to leave his home and moved back in with your own family. Despite these struggles, you have still managed to make it to your prenatal appointments with the ACAM midwives. Like clockwork, you go into labor on your due date and arrive to the birth center with strong contractions. When you arrive to the clinic, however, the midwives can’t find the baby’s heartbeat...
Using the knowledge they gained from the training course last fall, the midwives of ACAM were able to put all that they had learned into practice in their first Cervical Cancer Screening Clinic. By the afternoon, 43 women had received a screening from the midwives. Many of those patients would normally forego a cervical cancer screening during their lifetime. The ACAM midwives have created a space where these women can receive competent care and are treated with respect as well as cultural sensitivity.
Maya Midwifery's mobile clinic returns to Toj Rincón to check on former patients. Despite our best intentions, there are some things that are beyond our control. The care we give through our midwives and our doctor is extraordinary in many respects, but our mobile clinics can only address some of the problems facing women in these communities.
