Our "Iron-clad" Guarantee

I have been thinking a lot lately about what “product” we are trying to sell at Casa Compasiva.  What is the most important Casa Compasiva focus that is our raison d'être-- our reason to exist?

Is it childbirth education?  Of course that is part of it... we want our clients to be well-educated in order to be well-prepared and make informed decisions. To that end we offer a series of eight mandatory childbirth classes, as well as various and sundry other public classes and workshops.  But that is only part of it... only part of our promise.
 
What then?  Is it natural birth?  We want our clients to be able to have a natural birth, and whenever possible we prepare them for that event, and help them through it when it arrives.  But what about clients who have already had two or three C-sections, or are diabetic, or have a heart murmur, or have a low-lying placenta, or some other condition signaling a higher-risk birth?   Do we then shoo them out the door saying there is nothing here for them? No, we continue to offer them pre-natal and post-partum services, while also referring them to higher level care...
Well, then, is that it?  Is it pre-natal and post-partum care?  Is that our hallmark, our principal product? But what about the woman who only hears about Casa Compasiva while already in her thirty-eighth week of pregnancy and who then goes into labour and delivers with us at thirty-nine weeks?  Did she just miss out on the quintessential Casa experience because she had no time to attend classes? No.

What is it then?  What is the one “product” that we can guarantee all of our clients will receive—whether wealthy foreigners, middle-class locals, or lower-income indigenous women from the surrounding mountain villages? I figured it out: it is love-- God's love distilled into quality maternity services, flowing through the hearts and hands and words of our midwives and doulas.  It is not a fake cheery smile, or a pithy team slogan, or a one-size-fits-all approach to pregnancy and birth.

No two women experience the same pregnancy, birth, or recovery period.  No two clients will go through exactly the same track of treatment with exactly the same results.  We can't guarantee a natural birth... unexpected complications can arise requiring transport and an eventual Caesarean.  We can't assure that her baby will be healthy.  That is in God's hands, not ours. But we can guarantee that if she is a Casa Compasiva client that she will be treated with respect, that she will be as informed as time allows, and--most especially--that she will have the chance to hear and experience the gentle love of the Lord Jesus as ministered to her by our midwives.

That is our “iron-clad” guarantee.  That is our promise-- not a particular outcome, but a particular exposure. We hope and pray that it will be enough to touch the hearts of the women we serve.  We hope that the exposure will “prime the pump” motivating them to reach out for more of this same Jesus whom they see in our lives and whom they hear about in their classes and appointments.

I need to be up-front with you right now.  Our funds are depleted;  rent for this month had to come from a private source;  I have no money to pay the obligatory Christmas bonuses or even the regular salaries for next week. We have many pre-natal clients and several births scheduled for December. In a season when demands on the midwives' time and energy are at an all-time high, our funds are at an all-time low.  This ministry depends on partial funding from outside sources; we cannot do it alone.

Please remember us in your prayers and in your giving.

We invite your continued participation in the ministry of Casa Compasiva, helping us to guarantee the only “product” that can really “deliver”--- God's love through Jesus Christ!

 Lila Joy