SAVING BABIES LIVES

This week I (Eileen) had the opportunity to participate in some neonatal training. There were two full days of training taught by an experienced team of doctors consisting of an OB-GYN, and multiple pediatricians.   This group, Perinasia, is very well organized and has been doing this type of training  since 1996. They meet international standards for neonatal resuscitation and utilize training materials developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics. We were introduced to this group by our mission president who is a pediatrician and who worked with this group on neonatal resuscitation projects prior to becoming a mission president.  Our church has provided training materials to this group over the years.  Neonatal resuscitation is a major/worldwide initiative for our church humanitarian efforts and we are looking into the possibility of doing a project here in Indonesia.

I attended to learn more about the program. I have attended many educational seminars over the years and this was as well run as any I have attended. I was extremely impressed with the faculty, the students and the organizational level of the program. The students were attentive and focused on learning, the teachers were good about being repetitive enough that the students could remember the information. I could even understand what was going on, and I don't speak Bahasa Indonesia!  The hands on training was excellent.  The amazing thing about this program is that it is not set up just to teach the people attending the program.  There were 25 students attending this weekend.  Each student that succeeds at passing the class is then qualified to go out and teach others the material they have learned. It is the basic concept of "training the trainer".  To date, the Perinasia group has trained over 10,000 people.  That is potentially a lot of babies lives that have been saved.

Statistics show that 10% of all babies born need some kind of help to survive.  About 1% need extensive resuscitation measures to survive.  I guess my family doesn't fit the normal statistics very well because of my three biological children one needed extensive resuscitation, of my eleven grandchildren, two needed extensive resuscitation.  There is so much pain that is associated with a mother that loses a baby, or even a mother who doesn't know whether her baby will survive.  What a great work Perinasia is doing.  Each medical provider they train means perhaps one less mother that has to suffer because  of a baby dying in Indonesia.

There is a graveyard that is close to our apartment. This past week I spent several mornings walking through the paths of the graveyard. I enjoyed the peace and solitude that was afforded there. I was also surprised at the number of infant graves, some freshly dug.  One morning I was especially emotional as it was the day of my daughter's birthday. She was the daughter that I had such a difficult pregnancy with. After birth she was in the newborn intensive care unit for 10 days.  It was an emotional roller coaster not knowing whether  she would live or die. On her birthday, with quiet contemplation,  I stopped by a flower vendor and bought myself and a friend a bouquet of pink roses. I was grateful to God for my sweet daughter and the blessing she has been in our  lives.

I would like to share a story about one of my grandchildren. Bree was born 3 months early at 27 weeks gestation.  We were fortunate that my daughter was in the hospital at the time Bree's heart stopped beating. The doctors knew the moment there was no longer a heartbeat and rushed my daughter to the delivery room and did an emergency c-section.  My granddaughter was born at 880 gms, or 1 lb 15 oz.  Thanks to the fact that my daughter was being monitored carefully and there was a skilled team close by to resuscitate the baby we have a beautiful active granddaughter today that is perfectly healthy in every way.  The consequences would have been very different had we not had the medical care we did.  My hope is that other mothers and grandmothers can have the blessing I have had of having my child and my grandchildren saved through the miracles of modern medicine. I am grateful for the wonderful program I was able to observe and for the good work that Perinasia does.

 Not all have the miracles hoped they desire.  For those that have lost loved ones, especially children, the heartache can be devastating. Do not despair.  God has not left us without hope.  I encourage you to watch the short video by clicking on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy41VCbdt0I

Of the heartache caused by the separation of death, none surpasses the grief endured due to the death of a little child. Mormon prophet Joseph F. Smith lost nine of his own children, and the Lord revealed to him much detail regarding their blessings in the afterlife. Among the wonderful doctrines revealed by the prophet:

• Young children who have passed on are welcomed into the arms of those ancestors who have predeceased them—“O my soul! I see my own sweet mother’s arms extended welcoming to her embrace the ransomed glorious spirit of my own sweet babe"!
• Little children who die before the age of accountability are redeemed through the atoning blood of Christ— "With little children who are taken away in infancy and innocence before they have reached the years of accountability, and are not capable of committing sin, the gospel reveals to us the fact that they are redeemed, and Satan has no power over them. Neither has death any power over them. They are redeemed by the blood of Christ, and they are saved just as surely as death has come into the world through the fall of our first parents."
• After the resurrection, a child’s body will grow to match the stature of the spirit. "...in the resurrection of the dead the child that was buried in its infancy will come up in the form of the child that it was when it was laid down; then it will begin to develop. From the day of the resurrection, the body will develop until it reaches the full measure of the stature of its spirit, whether it be male or female."
• Righteous parents will have the opportunity to raise in the heavenly realm the child lost to death—"...when the mother is deprived of the pleasure and joy of rearing her babe to manhood or to womanhood in this life, through the hand of death, that privilege will be renewed to her hereafter, and she will enjoy it to a fuller fruition than it would be possible for her to do here." This wonderful blessing is guaranteed to parents who have been sealed to their children through eternal temple ordinances (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith, 128 [1]).

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  DR.ANKY WITH STUDENTS

DR DWI  GETTING READY TO RESUSCITATE

DR. FERDY TRAINING DR. EISTIANAH TO INTUBATE

EILEEN AND PERINASIA DOCTORS

EILEEN INTUBATING BABY, AGUS STANDING BY TO HELP

BREE-BORN 880 GMS

BREES FOOTPRINT

RUSSELL AND BREE

BREE TODAY

 RESUSCITATION SUPPLIES PROVIDED BY OUR CHURCH