God's Gracious Gift

I got to name a baby. I was intimated by the fact that I had been asked specifically to name someone else's baby. Too much pressure. So I made I list of Hebrew names I liked and their meanings and presented it to our home group. As a group and with Ate Inday's approval, we decided on "Johanna" which means God's gracious gift.

Ate Inday (pronounced Ah-tee In-dai) is a friend of ours from church. I've written about her in past posts. I need to share her story because many of you have impacted her life by giving me money toward the family planning fund I started. Ate means older sister and is a commonly-used affectionate term in the Philippines.

Ate Inday & Baby Johanna

Ate Inday was distraught when she found out she was pregnant again. It was her 10th pregnancy. At the age of 41 she didn't think it was still possible. In fact, when she was pregnant the last time three years ago, she was worried how she would care for yet another child - since her husband doesn't have stable work and the family struggles to survive with hardly enough food to eat, much less the ability to pay for schooling for their children or needed medical care.

Together with my midwife friend Marielyn, we provided prenatal care for Inday at Glory Reborn. We supplied her with healthy foods and vitamin supplements and encouraged her to take care of herself as best she could. As her pregnancy progressed several complications arose. She started having premature labor at five months which was able to be stopped with treatment of a urinary tract infection. She was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and had too much amniotic fluid surrounding her baby, which carries it's own risks. To top it off, she struggled with iron-deficiency anemia which combined with everything else put her at high risk of hemorrhaging after delivery (one of the top causes of maternal death in the developing world). Given her age and the number of babies she's carried, in addition to the complications she was experiencing, Inday had to be transferred to hospital care. It was too risky for her to deliver at our little clinic.

While Andrey and I were in the US, Inday delivered a healthy baby girl. After delivery, at her request we arranged for her to have her tubes tied (tubal ligation). All of her pregnancy and delivery-related costs were paid for (ultrasounds, lab work, Dr. fees, hospital fees, medicine, etc...) in addition to the cost of her ligation. Without this support she would have likely lost her baby to premature labor. Or she would have given birth at home without the aid of a skilled birth attendant and would have put herself at a much higher risk of dying in childbirth. And she certainly wouldn't have been able to have tubal ligation and very well may have gotten pregnant again. In addition to all of her other problems (and she has many), at least getting pregnant again is no longer one of them. It's one area that she no longer has to worry about. Her current children are more likely to have their mother around to take care of them.

We are so thankful for God's grace, provision and mercy for Inday and especially her baby Johanna who was delivered in the hospital without any major complications. Praise God!

She's so cute!!

So THANK YOU! Thank you to those of you who contributed to helping Inday and others like her. I look forward to sharing more stories like this in the future.