Fernando Molina
Fernando Molina is family physician, Certified Prenatal instructor and midwife in his hometown of Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela, population approximately one million people. He tells us how women are giving birth in Venezuela using 2006 figures of who attends births: 98% MDs and 2% traditional midwives in rural areas.
Unfortunately, in Venezuela midwifery is not recognized in the infrastructure of perinatal care. Having an MD degree, Fernando asked the Public Health and Sanitary Deptartment to allow him to register births he attends directly in the official department of newborn registration without the hassle implied in outside hospital births. He tells us: “They could not understand me and were very reluctant at first, so I had to hire a lawyer to help me in the matter. Finally we won the case. I became (with pride) ‘el Partero.’”
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Fernando teaches a 12 week prenatal course called "Comienzos Magicos" (Magical Beginnings) in order to help women rediscover their divine and innate power to give birth with joy. The course is a preparation for motherhood and fatherhood, embracing the mind, body and spirit for a conscious pregnancy and childbirth. Fernando considers himself a midwife by heart, and his wife Haylen works with him as a doula. Most of the births they attend are at their home.
Fernando has been dedicated for the past eight years exclusively with homebirths, mostly waterbirths.
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