Robin Lim: Guarding the Human Rights of a Newborn with Gentle Birth
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Robin Lim: Guarding the Human Rights of a Newborn with Gentle Birth
“Your relationship with your birth mother is going to trickle down to your relationship with Mother Earth”
On episode 14, we had the absolute privilege of speaking with Robin Lim, a Filipino-American midwife and founder of Bumi Sehat, a non-profit organization in Indonesia and the Philippines that offers a comprehensive range of allopathic and holistic medical care, covering pre and post-natal care, breastfeeding support, infant, child and family health services, nutritional education, pre-natal yoga and gentle, loving natural birth services. In 2011, she was celebrated as CNN Hero of the Year for her outstanding work in running 6 medical clinics building peace —one baby, one mother, one family at a time. Each baby's capacity to love and trust is built at birth and in the first two hours of life!
Despite the COVID spike in unwanted pregnancies (by up to 420,000 in Indonesia alone according to The Jakarta Post), Bumi Sehat’s heroic midwives are still at the frontlines fighting for a woman’s right to bring a baby into the world gently and without trauma — protecting the most natural thing a woman can do while advocating for optimal humanity, health, intelligence and consciousness at all levels of community, family and planet.
In this incredibly inspiring conversation, we cover:
What it means to give birth in a gentle way without trauma
Unpacking the research that shows “being born without trauma is the foundation for having an intact capacity for love and trust”
Before Bumi Sehat came to Indonesia, how women (especially the country’s most disenfranchised and poor) navigated the pre-natal, birth experience and postpartum care
The importance of breastfeeding and why Bumi Sehat places significant emphasis on this versus infant formula
What we don’t typically know about a midwife, including her superheroic ability to bring babies into the world without electricity, running water, childbirth equipment or shelter (demonstrated in 2004 when Bumi responded to the earthquake that wiped out Aceh, an island in Northwest Indonesia).
How Bumi Sehat navigates family planning to support the most vulnerable women in society economically and in health, especially during COVID times
The gravest challenges as founder and primary fundraiser of Bumi Sehat
To keep Bumi Sehat’s clinics open during these challenging pandemic times, please consider donating to the NGO in the lead up to “Giving Tuesday” on December 1st. To learn more about this initiative, head here: https://www.globalgiving.org/donate/81399/yayasan-bumi-sehat-ds-pkr-nyuh-kuning/