Life.

I often go to the hospital to bring, visit or take women back to the Casa Materna. We travel about 10 minutes in the ambulance the Casa owns to arrive to the regional hospital. With one of the nurses by my side, I am able to enter with ease and walk into any section of the hospital (even without a nurse by my side, I would probably be able to do the same). There are multiple rooms filled with women who have just given birth and who are waiting to ¨dar la luz¨. They talk with family members, eat from the enchilada stand, nurse, walk, sleep and invite me to hold their newborns.

As I reflected upon my visit to the hospital the other day, I wrote the following about a woman I met who was from Matagalpa (and had not been in the Casa Materna):

I think of the women I met today and about the one for whom my heart broke. She was so young and so sad. There she was, among six other women who had given birth today with their newborns by their sides. The babies slept, cried and ate as she grieved the death of the baby she delivered this morning. I weep for her loss and know she represents many strong women in the world who have had to face the same reality. Surely she will grow to love another child she carries, but until then, her loss poignantly resonates with me.