Hello all -
Tina here writing to you all from the Dominican Republic Island where Whitney and I have been for almost 2 weeks (on Saturday), on a missions/midwife trip. We are staying in the crowded city of Santo Domingo in the home of a young couple with 4 other women. We brought many supplies and he been busy giving out supplies, organizing, educating...and educating some more... on health, birth, labor, delivery, neonatal(newborn) care and postpartum care.
The hospital is in the inner city and the people don't pay anything for their care. Let's just say you get what you pay for is also true here.
 Basic necessities are lacking... no sheets for the beds, no soap or clean water from the faucets (in the hospital), no clothes or blankets for the babies, not enough lamps(warming lights?) for the babies, no electricity for hours at a time, no screens on the windows or mosquito netting......about a 40% c-section rate with,  at best - questionable sterile technique.....and pretty rough, rushed births... the infection rate and post partum bleeding is sky high and I think I have seen about as many miscarriages, stillbirths, tiny premature babies that are often not treated (as there really is not anymore physical help they can offer). I have seen full term beautiful babies that have died, in cardboard boxes on the floor next to the nursery - where most babies lay freezing, while they wait to be brought to the mothers. 
The mothers whose babies have died are housed in the same room as the moms that are nursing their newborns right next to them  in bed. If it is crowded, there can be 3 to 4 women per bed. All have I.V.'s in their arms. No pain medication is available pre or post birth. Even for c-sections. (Sections do get a 'spinal' anesthetic..then are monitored through the c-section by the anesthesiologist talking to them..but they never stay for the whole procedure..)
Yet the incredible strength and beauty of these often very, very young Dominican women is amazing. I have had the knack for finding women who lost their babies... imagine that. I have found that with my very limited Spanish (some are from Haiti and only speak Creole'), when I pray for them - in English... every one of them breaks and just sobs... Oh dear sweet Jesus we are all the same. The Holy Spirit communicates without language.  As mommies there is nothing harder to bear than losing your chid..this we know..
 I have been able to share in my limited Spanish sometimes, that I  - an American from 'the top country for medical science', as one doctor told me today - that I too, have my little son with Jesus now. They are amazed by that. And they seem to believe me when I tell them that it WILL be OK. They WILL make it. The Holy Spirit will comfort them like He comforts me. 
Going to find them gifts.. mainly what many of you donated - clothes, a bar of soap, flip flops, underwear, postpartum supplies, a towel, a little cloth bag... and then they cry when I have given them a little doll... or a little stuffed animal. At least they have some memento of their child.. I know they will treasure it for a very long time.
So tonight I am here asking for prayer. Again. Thank you!
Just tonight at the hospital we found out that the first swine flu death happened today in the pediatric ward....... where we were yesterday handing out gifts to the babies and children there.     It did cross my mind as I watched one or two breathing so rapidly... and was brought back to the horrendous days with Joel working so hard to breathe at the U of MN. So I was not in those rooms more than a few seconds but some of us were.  The country seems to be a bit confused as to what to do... I guess that floor was closed twice today... ???
There is talk of us not going there anymore, being quarantined (however that would work here..), or even having to have our blood drawn to be checked... personally I have not looked into it at all. None of us have. We are just here to do the work that is set before us. The hospital staff is finally warmed up to us and a few  enjoy practicing their English as much as I enjoy practicing and re-learning Spanish. We did wear our masks much more today, and tonight are pretty tired form the day. Assisting delivering women, and comforting - and cringing at the 'brutality' of their birthing process(compared to the U.S. I mean...)...leaves you exhausted or wound up at night.
So I will try to write and let y'all know how we come out of this. Our tickets are to fly home (to Charlotte), on Saturday. Thank you for praying for us, He IS with us here.