By Maria Jose Orellana | Project Leader
Hey Everyone!! What an intense 2020 year!! I’d like to send you a warm blessing from me & the Mírame project during this time of global shifting uncertainty.
In regards to Mírame, I’m excited to share that the project has $1500 to dedicate activities for 2020. Rest assured, I’ll be diligently stewarding this incredible gift to leverage the greatest impact for women’s economic and personal empowerment. Starting with virtual platform adoption to continue Mírame’s outreach to connect and educate Ecuadorian women during this pandemic.
This time last year, Mírame embarked on 2019’s biggest activity of the year; a week-long awareness and education week co-hosted by Espacio de Co-Escucha for the international “La Semana del Parto Respetado (Respected Childbirth Week), which takes place annually on the week of May (19-25th for 2020).
“La Semana del Parto Respetado” represents an important endeavor to ‘mother the mother’ and reclaim childbirth as a transformative, natural process to the human condition- and particularly female bodies. The date acts as a marker to challenge current medical practices, due to the fact that 74% of childbirth in Ecuador occurs through cesarean medical intervention (the WHO states that only 20% of births actually require cesarean intervention).
Last year, “La Semana del Parto Respetado” first reached Cuenca, Ecuador sparking conversations on what it means for a woman to have “birthing rights” (aka- the right to: give birth in a squatting position, receive food and water during labor, deny vaginal contact to determine cervical dilation… etc.) and also introduced ancestral themes of feminine transformation and corporal empowerment derived from local indigenous communities and introduced into the modern culture birthing dialogue.
La Semana del Parto Respetado was a whirlwind week that directly impacted 109 attendees and received great community feedback. Complete with front page news coverage, tv and radio interviews. The weeklong event saw a series of public workshops, a public mural made from the imprints of placentas, a highlighting conference with 6 medical and tribal medicine panelists (that received much esteem and applause), and a peaceful “informative peace protest” in front of the hospital that sees the most cases of cesareans in Cuenca (roughly 80%).
The biggest “win” of it all was being contacted by the hospital where the informative protest took place with a request to educate medical staff on the rights of women in labor.
Looking towards this year, COVID quarantine policies and social distancing is changing the scope and strategies of what was originally planned. For now, our goal for “La Semana del Parto Respetado” is to repeat the same news media coverage, embark on an online awareness campaign, and to host public training and education webinars online for the same number of direct beneficiaries.
This year’s theme is “Parir es Poder” (Birthing is Power) and we’re super excited to invite women to explore the power of their bodies during such a transformative moment of a woman’s (and infant’s!) life. Stay tuned to see how all the fun shakes down for the month ahead by following us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/Mirame.Vivir
A warm & heartfelt thank you for investing in another year of Mírame's program advancement, and contributing to the benefit and wellbeing of the benefit of mothers and expectant mothers in Ecuador.
By Colleen Eschenburg | Project Leader
By Maria Jose Orellana | Executive Director
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