LifeSpring Hospitals: Why I'm Here

Some of you may be uncertain why I am suddenly writing a blog from India. The reason I am here is to work for LifeSpring Hospitals which is a chain of maternal and child health clinics in India www.lifespringhospitals.com The reason I am at LifeSpring is because I was awarded a fellowship through the Acumen Fund www.acumenfund.org

A quick education: India's healthcare situation lags behind other countries that have experienced similar economic expansion and GDP growth, namely the group of countries with the fastest growing developing economies, known as BRIC (Brazil, Russia, Inda, China). The poor situation is reflected on all health indicators from immunization among 1 year olds to high disease prevalence. India suffers from a crippling shortage in the healthcare workforce, a growing social inequality and a country-wide infant mortality rate of 57 deaths per 1000 live births. India has the highest IMR (infant mortality) and MMR (maternal mortality) among BRIC countries (2008 data).

LifeSpring's Role
LifeSpring Hospitals has developed a business which serves only poor women and their children. The model is proving to be not only sustainable but scalable. In 2010 LifeSpring plans to build 9 hospitals (with my help!). The hospitals are small (25-30) beds. In a country where maternal and child health is a massive issue LifeSpring Hospitals is providing one working solution.
Alright...enough with the plug.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about LifeSpring is their approach to marketing. Here, pregnant women are considered customers and not patients (pregnancy is not a disease!). Today, I spent time in the field with the Outreach Workers (on the ground marketers) for LifeSpring. The experience was rewarding and intense.

To begin I have never felt more tall, white or LARGE in general. (see photos of nurses with me today as well as video of them refusing to do the nod!)

The customers of LifeSpring are poor. They are not the poorest of India but near the bottom. Seeing where they live was eye-opening and educational. In these parts of India it was very clear that white people are seldom seen. From the start I had children and families following me through the dilapidated neighborhoods. Everyone was extremely curious about my presence and what I was doing. Children came up to me to touch me and stand in lines to introduce themselves.

The native language here is Telugu and few understand Hindi at all. Communication was pretty much non-existent. That being said, it was very clear everyone was basically saying: “come over here and meet the white lady.”

The children were beautiful, shy and curious. The women were cautious and luminous. (see photos)

The households here are not ruled by the young pregnant woman, but by the older woman of the household (typically the mother-in-law). Imagine that! These women were the gatekeepers.
What we did was essentially sell maternal and child health care door to door. I know this sounds crazy (and it was!). The fact that this is possible gives you an idea of the sheer number of pregnant woman in India.
What is important is that without a service like LifeSpring these women are forced to go to government hospitals where care is poor, not free (although promised this way) and without dignity. LifeSpring is offering them a choice and these women are listening.

Today I learned a lot about dignity and how it is maintained in the settings which seem hopeless. The areas we serve have no running water, animals running rampant and garbage laying in the streets. Despite the dirt and poverty what I did find was a beauty and dignity: the henna hands and painted toe-nails of even the youngest girls. The ever-lasting brilliant colors of India – The way women sat together braiding one another’s hair into ropes of ebony.
Most interesting to me was the way they were all finger painting their houses and ‘sidewalks’…this is difficult to describe. When you go to these homes you realize that they are all decorated with red, white and blue designs around the doorways, bases and entrances to the homes. This is done by the people who live there. They essentially paint it on by wetting colored powders and finger-painting (see photo). The beauty and uniqueness of each home does not go un-noticed.
I also saw dignity in the way they swept the paths between the homes. Despite the relative squalor the street was clean.
What I do know is that being pregnant in these settings cannot be easy, but somehow these women make it seem that way.

On a lighter note - I got serious hazing because I had been dating someone for 3 years and not married them. These ladies think I am incompetent as a woman. I was also offered a child by one of the women in the village.