Greetings

Dear Friends and Family,

In March 2012, we are participating in an amazing mission trip that is very close to our hearts. We have decided to call it "Heart and Hands for the Dominican Republic" and it's a 10 day trip to the Dominican where we will be working in a busy hospital helping to deliver babies and take care of mothers in the maternity wing. The goal of this remarkable journey is to bring the hospital new equipment and supplies, and provide the mothers and babies with humanized care while soaking in knowledge from the native staff.

Birth in Dominican hospitals can be quite traumatic for both mothers and babies. The hospitals do not have the first world luxuries we have here in the states. In fact, many of the women must give birth on bare metal hospital beds as they are not able to provide sheets to most of them. The staff is also unable to perform basic life saving techniques because they do not have the equipment and are often lacking skills needed for resuscitation of a newborn, to control bleeding in mothers, and provide follow up care in the postpartum period.

We are writing to you today to ask for your support. Our paths to midwifery are all different. Some have been colored by our own unsatisfactory birth experiences, the painful lack of evidence based care in our own country, and a deep appreciation of how much birth DOES matter and our own deep dedication to preserving women's rights during those years. We cannot think of any other way we would rather serve women than to help them have a better experience in bringing their babies into the world. That is why traveling and working in the Dominican so close to our hearts.

You can keep up with our journey on the group's blog http://heartsandhandsstudentmidwives.blogspot.com/. Our goal is to each raise at least $2,500 for this cause. You can help by making a donation. That donation can be monetary or in supplies (a list of needed supplies can be found on our blog, you can also find us on Facebook). You can give online at http://giving.piryx.com/streams/Hearts-and-Hands-for-the-Dominican-Republic/THAy7w6f or send donations to the address listed below.

Thank you for your consideration and support. We plan to keep you updated on our progress as we continue fundraising efforts and take part in this inspiring event.

Warmly,
The ladies of Heart and Hands for the DR
Bree, Charlie, Jessica, and Shea