all the pregnant ladies...

big sister learning to swaddle.

after what seemed like a million complications, we were finally able to get a group of pregnant women together for another round of pregnancy classes! while the first group was easy to round up and only seemed to grow week-by-week, this group took f.o.r.e.v.e.r. to come together. the average age of the women was much younger and of the 8, only two were first time moms.

i am shocked and awed by the lack of basic anatomical and physiological knowledge. above and beyond all of the pregnancy myths and legends and the crazy dominican "do-not-do-during-pregnancy" list, the question that hurt my heart the most was, "what does my period have to do with my pregnancy?"

meditation and relaxation techniques

we've always talked to teenagers about protecting themselves - using condoms, birth control, abstaining. in fact, i've been known to bring in carry-ons full of condoms for amalio to have on hand at school. just recently two of his (male) students asked for condoms, because in "their line of work" they need them, but they often don't have money to buy any. they're strippers.

it's hard to teach teenagers, and even adults, how to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy if there isn't a working knowledge of how things work. and with all of the crazy rumors surrounding birth control, it's even harder.

pretty pregnancies (and jewel)

the question caught me so off guard because in my north american mind, everybody had some sort of human anatomy class in middle school, maybe high school. we all learned that the woman has eggs and a man has sperm and the two can meet up and form a baby, right? apparently not. as i asked around the group a bit, i realized that even in this hyper-sexual culture, women didn't know what their own body parts looked like on the outside! one woman asked how americans use tampons, because wouldn't pee get stuck inside of her? (tampon use is not common in latin america)

the new curriculum that we're working on will have all of this worked in on the first day of class. information and knowledge are power. when we know about our bodies, we can protect and care for ourselves and our loved ones.

thank you all for sharing this journey!!!