PHA-Exchange> Hesperian Foundation: Information for nurses and midwives

[George Lessard (s)]

Hesperian Foundation
lisa at hesperian.org
www.hesperian.org

> Begin forwarded message:

From: lisa at hesperian.org
Date: Sat Sep 20, 2003  8:58:30  AM Canada/Eastern
To: hif-net at who.int
Subject: [HIF-net at WHO] Information for nurses and midwives [18]

Hello everyone. I'm writing from the Hesperian Foundation, a non-profit
publisher of books and materials for community health and empowerment, 
most
well-known for our classic guide, Where There Is No Doctor. In response 
to
several people that have asked about good resources or training 
materials on
midwifery, I'd like to share a little bit about our experience in 
publishing
our book entitled A Book for Midwives, in addition to our philosophy on
making health resources accessible to as large an audience as possible.

Some years ago Hesperian found the need to produce a training manual for
midwives that was written in a clear, low-literacy, highly illustrated
manner (as is our style). Furthermore, we wanted the book to represent 
real
life conditions and situations, especially given that many communities 
are
operating on little or no resources. Not to mention that the local 
midwife
is oftentimes the only health care worker around! The book was then 
created
in collaboration with midwives all over the world who not only helped 
with
the writing, but also took part in an intensive field testing process.  
In
this way, we could ensure that the book would not only be accessible,
practical, and relevant in terms of its content, but would also be
culturally appropriate and valuable to a larger audience of women. And, 
as
with any collaboration, the process of creating the book resulted in a
wonderful sense of community-building and partnership, in which we all 
felt
that our ideas and knowledge of midwifery and childbirth were 
represented.

The book was published in 1995, and since then has been widely used 
around
the world. As the book was created as a training manual, it acts as a 
tool
for further replication of knowledge. It has been used on both an
institutional level, for example as a coursebook at the midwifery school
Maternidad La Luz in El Paso, as well as on an individual level, with 
one
midwife then training another, using the practical ideas and activities
represented within the manual.

Furthermore, Hesperian holds an "open-copyright" policy which allows any
organization to translate and adapt our materials, so long as they also
produce the book in a collaborative manner and do not sell the book for 
a
profit. In this way, we promote the idea that the knowledge that the 
book
holds will then continue to reproduce itself and get disseminated to an 
even
larger population of women. Since A Book for Midwives was released,
translations have been done in Spanish, Chinese, Farsi, Khmer and
Vietnamese, with Tetum and Swahili versions on the way. If you are
interested in any of these translations, you can contact me for more 
info
(see below).

Through all these means, we know that the knowledge of midwifery and 
womens
health continues to be passed along, empowering one woman after 
another. As
many of you have mentioned in recent postings, central points such as
partnerships, community reviews, meeting local needs, and empowering 
people
to participate in their own health care are key to the success of
disseminating health care information all across the globe.

If any of you have any questions about A Book for Midwives or about
Hesperian Foundation in general, please feel free to write!

Lisa Gonzalves
Hesperian Foundation
lisa at hesperian.org
www.hesperian.org




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