Blog Post 4 - Life, but death too

Life, but death too

Hello fellow readers! Over the last few days I've been learning more about how Shalom Chrisitian Birthing Centre was initially set up and why the need was so great for it to be started here in this location specifically. I apologise in advance for the not-so-cheery update, but I thought it was important to share both the good and not so good times that I'm facing here.

The birthing centre is situated in Antipolo, which is next to the capital of the Philippines, Manila. Manila is the most densely populated city in the world with an estimated 1.7 million people living here in handmade squatter shacks and huts; most people staying here illegally.

In 1991, a retired nurse and midwife, Mavis Orton, came over to the Philippines and created this safe and dignified environment for women here to have a chance to live and be healthy through their pregnancy and childbirth. Not only that, but for them to take home a beautiful, healthy newborn too. Something that we, in the UK, would totally expect and see as the norm. We wouldn't expect to not take home our baby after going through 9 months of pregnancy and enduring the pain of labour, but it was, and often still is, the reality for women living here.

One of my good friends that I've met here on this trip experienced this only a few weeks ago when the baby that she delivered sadly died a few hours after birth at a nearby hospital. The baby had been born prematurely due to the Mum being physically abused by her partner. Not only this, but I found out a few weeks later that this Mum's older child also died a few days after her baby did from asthma...please keep her in your thoughts and prayers through this very difficult time. As midwives, you expect to be bringing new life into the world, and mostly we do, but sometimes we have to say goodbye soon after we've said hello.

Psalm 23:4 - Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me.

Death is a strange thing. One of the only things we are completely 100% sure of in this world is that at some point in our lives, we will die. Every one of us. However, when this will happen is often unknown and we can't stop it from happening. This, I guess, is what is scary. What's more scary though is what comes next. What happens after we die? Do we just... die? Do we just live here on this world for so long and then, that's it? Or is there a purpose of us being here? Is there more to life than simply living our day to day routine lives? Maybe you've never thought about it before. This might be the first time it's entered your mind that there may be more to life than you getting up in the morning, doing your thing for about 15 hours a day, and then going to bed (or in other words... eat, sleep, rave, repeat!). Maybe you do think that's it. You might believe that that's all we're here for. To live, grow up, get old if we're lucky, and then exist no more. Yeah, we might have great family and friends to share it with, but still... is that it?

I don't believe that that's it. I can't believe that that's it. What a depressing existence that would be, not just for me or you, but for the whole of the human race! What would be the point in existing?! The people living here have a faith and hope in something much greater than themselves that helps them to get through this eat, sleep, rave, repeat type of life... and for them it's probably a much harder life than ours. Please take time today to consider why you're here on earth, living. Who put you here, and where are you going to end up? If you don't know, maybe the verse below will give you something to think about...

For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16 

Hope you haven't shed too many tears and I promise I'll make my final blog more uplifting! :) Thanks again to all of you who have taken time to comment, message and read my blogs while I've been away. It's been a great encouragement and I love you all.

Ciao,
The Travelling Midwife x