OFF TO AFRICA

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By Kay Luna | Monday, May 12, 2008 12:15 PM CDT | () comments

Jeff Cook/Quad-City Times Tammy Ryan, a doula, gives Manisha Virdi a back rub in her hospital room at Trinity at Terrace Park in Bettendorf as Virdi goes through labor. Buy this Photo

She is incredibly excited, and, well, maybe just a little nervous, too.

This will be Tammy Ryan’s first-ever trip out of the country. She’s never even gone over the border to Canada or Mexico.

It seems unreal, she says. She’s going to Burundi, Africa, in August.

The mission trip to share her childbirth-coaching skills with villagers there is going to mean something. It’s going to change people’s lives, including her own.

“It’s a God thing,” she said. “This is something I’ve always wanted to do.”

Ryan, of Bettendorf, is a certified doula, a professional who provides emotional, physical and informational support to women and childbearing families.

Affiliated with Baby Matters, which no longer has a Bettendorf storefront but still coordinates doula services and training classes, Ryan said she was invited in the fall to join a group of four midwives and two doulas from across the United States going on the mission trip to Africa.

The midwives are going to teach the medical skills necessary when delivering babies, and the doulas will teach how to help women through labor, as outlined by the World Health Organization, she said.

At first, she jumped at the chance and said yes. Then she said no.

Ryan said she was worried — and still is — about being overseas for an entire month, especially in August, when her two oldest sons will be leaving for college. She also has a husband and a 15-year-old son at home.

After a lot of thought and conversation with her family, Ryan agreed again in February to go — but only for two weeks. Her family still is encouraging her to stay the entire month, she said.

Jennifer Vanderlaan of Albany, N.Y., a doula, nursing student and childbirth educator who is leading the mission trip, said she thought of Ryan right away when she was choosing experts to invite. Ryan’s experience as a doula trainer, often traveling across the Midwest to teach, will be an excellent thing to offer the village women, she said.

Vanderlaan herself wanted to postpone the trip for family reasons, but she feels a calling to go now.

“The need is too great,” she said. “There are too many women dying. They need the skills now.”

The whole thing came about because Vanderlaan was challenged to lead a prayer effort about childbirth around the world and felt inspired to research birth statistics overseas. She saw how many women were dying in childbirth in Africa, and “the numbers were astounding,” she added.

“The death rate from preventable causes in Africa is horrendous,” she said. “One out of 16 women will die of pregnancy-related causes, and I thought I needed to be part of the solution.”

Because many of the villagers live 70 or more miles away from a hospital, many women usually get only one — if any — prenatal doctor visits before giving birth. They end up delivering in their remote villages, where sanitary conditions are not stressed and women might not realize they have a medical problem until it is too late.

“Disease is a huge thing,” Vanderlaan said. “Basically, it’s a death sentence when you get pregnant. You don’t know if you’re going to live through it.”

The Rev. Floribert Kazingufu, a pastor in Burundi who is involved with a group called the Foundation Chirezi, is leading the effort from Africa. His church is the site where the doula and midwife training will be held.

About 30 women from five different African countries have been chosen for the training, based on their communities’ long distance from health-care facilities, he said by e-mail from Africa. He hopes the mission not only helps women who are without health care, but also spurs the development of small health centers in rural areas.

“Infant mortality has been climbing high because of the decades of war and lack of roads and other development infrastructures in rural areas,” he said. “Babies are dying because of lack of hygienic methods, and others are being born contaminated by diseases contracted during pregnancy and at birth.”

Ryan said she and the other volunteers on the mission trip will stay in a house near Kazingufu’s church, but they have already been asked not to go anywhere without a member of the congregation along, especially not after dark.

She has to go through several series of vaccinations and take malaria pills to prepare for the trip, which is expected to involve eight hours of flight time from New York to Europe and then another eight hours to Africa.

“I like that we’re leaving them with a skill,” she said, adding that the mission volunteers are “planting the seeds of the first midwives down there.” “It’s literally going to save moms’ and babies’ lives.”

Kay Luna can be contacted at (563) 383-2323 or kluna@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.

WHAT IS A DOULA?

Doulas are professionals who provide emotional, physical and informational support to women and childbearing families before and during birth, and even after babies are born and go home.

The origin of the term “doula” is Greek, meaning “a woman who serves,” said Debbie Young of Lowden, Iowa, a professional doula, educator and president of an international doula organization.

Sometimes confused with midwives, doulas coach and advocate for mothers and their families, but they do not provide medical care, such as gynecological services, as midwives can.

Doulas are not required to go through specialized training, but many do, becoming certified in the process. They charge a wide range of fees, depending upon their training and experience, and what other doulas in their geographic area charge.

HOW TO HELP

Tammy Ryan of Bettendorf wants to share her skills as a professional doula with African villagers, teaching them during a mission trip in August how to get women through labor and childbirth safely.

But she can’t go unless she raises $3,000 for travel expenses by the end of May, which is when she has to buy her airplane tickets. She welcomes donations toward those expenses, as well as money or contributions toward the supplies she would like to bring along: stethoscopes, hand sanitizer, latex gloves, notebooks, pens and soap. She hopes to bring 30 of each item to accommodate the 30 women who will attend the month-long training at a church in Burundi.

Contributions are tax-deductible and can be sent payable to First Assembly of God, 1811 18th St., Bettendorf, IA, 52722. Please note in the check’s memo space that the money is for “Tammy’s Africa trip.” To reach Ryan directly, call (563) 505-3991 or e-mail her at servanthands123@aol.com. To learn more about her doula services, go online to babymatters.org.

To learn more about the African pastor and his foundation, which is helping to organize the trip, go online to ourcongo.net.