Meet Robin Lim from Yayasan Ibu Sehat, Bali. Ibu Robin (Mother Robin) received the Alexander Langer Award on 2006 for her love and dedication for mothers and babies of Bali and also Aceh’s Tsunami victims. Lim thinks of babies as miracles of everyday’s life. Babies are beings of innocence, love and peace. We often heard the children are the heirs of the nation. Holding on such statement, this is her way of building peace, not only through this nation but also the world.

Then, how would Robin Lim embodied this mission? It all started when Ibu Robin dreamt of getting visits from her past grandmother handling her yellow shirt. The dream kept coming repeatedly until she understands what it means.

Her grandmother was apparently a practicing midwife in the mountains of the Philippines. And it seems that through the dreams, she was trying to pass on the torch to her grandchild, Ibu Robin. So a midwife then Lim became. And to Bali then she went to fulfill her destiny, which is finding Yayasan Bumi Sehat.

Yayasan Bumi Sehat is a non-profit organization that helped deliveries, concerning the high numbers of mortality for infants and mothers in Bali. This foundation the less-fortunate community by providing treatment and antenatal care, either free or paid freely.

But not only cost-wise, the foundation emphasizes more on giving the proper treatment for babies and their mothers during the labor process. The first and foremost step to start with is every baby should have the chance to have a gentle and proper birth. For proper birth process, there are three elements that need to be highlighted during each birth, which are medicine, nature and culture.

Medicine, whether traditional or modern ones, are for sure helpful on assisting smoother deliveries. However, it’s not the only aspect that contributes on the baby’s healthy and smooth delivery. Other than that, culture also holds an important role since medicinal factor holds only one-third part of the birth success. How are we going to deliver a healthy baby in an unhealthy environment? It is most likely unacceptable, so both aspect matters in this case. While on cultural matters, Bumi Sehat considerately appreciates each mother’s belief and trust that those values will come out helpful while delivering the baby. One unique routine applied in Bumi Sehat is, when a mother is to give birth, she will be asked for her religion, and then the corresponding music in accordance with her beliefs will be played to relief the mother’s stress level. And that’s how the three foundations helped the babies get born healthy and safe.

In this process, they should not be separated from the love of their mothers and/or fathers, immediately get breast milk, and not separated directly from the placenta. The love and warmth from their source of life, their mothers, should not be cut instantly after the birth process. When the babies were born, they should be embraced and still feel the warmth and her mother's love. Another thing is, usually the child will automatically seek to breastfeed. This will make the bond between the child and the mother stronger and on top of that, breast milk is also the best source of nutrition for infants.

Robin Lim really showed that all that starts with love ends with love. She’s there in every delivery, she pep-talked the desperate mothers who are in pain; she even cleans up the babies herself after birth and helps care for the placenta. For more info about Robin Lim and Yayasan Bumi Sehat, contact (0361) 970-002 or simply visit www.bumisehatbali.org and www.robinlimsupport.com.

Courtesy of Bali and Beyond,