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Organization	Mercy In Action Vineyard, INC
Region	United States
Website	Website
Facebook	Facebook
Twitter	N/A
ProjectLeader	Vicki Penwell

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Mothers and babies die unnecessarily during childbirth in the Philippines because often families don't have money to pay a skilled birth attendant. Mercy In Action midwives provide free childbirth services and education to empower women through evidence-based maternity services and birth. Empowered mothers have healthier babies and become powerful agents of change for the family, which results in our maternal and neonatal mortality rates being 4-times lower than the country of the Philippines.

Challenge

Mothers and babies die in childbirth when they have no skilled birth attendant at the birth, due to anemia, hemorrhage, infection, hypertension disorders, and obstructed labor. Mothers who deliver in Mercy In Action's birth center receive excellent prenatal care, vitamins, and childbirth education. During delivery, they are given the benefit of up-to-date evidence-based midwifery practices in a clean, well-stocked mother-friendly and baby-friendly environment.

Long-Term Impact

Mercy In Action has provided 15,200 free deliveries in the Philippine! Our statistics were printed by medical anthropologist Robbie Davis-Floyd in her book"Birth Models That Work". We know this to be true: How a woman is treated during care for pregnancy and childbirth has one of two effects: It either empowers her or it disempowers and diminishes her as a human being. Women say that to birth at Mercy In Action is to be empowered to be better mothers as well as community health advocates!