Underserved Women of the White Mountain Area
We live here in the White Mountains, we marry, have babies, send them off to school and the cycle starts over again.
Where are the women of childbearing ages going for support during critical, transformative periods in their lives?? Who are we entrusting with the growth and sustenance of our unborn babies? Who are we trusting to catch our babies?? Are home and hospital our only choices in which to birth our babies? Where are we going for breastfeeding support to answer concerns and receive supportive advice from qualified lactation consultants? LLL where are you?? Where are we taking our children for pediatric care, one that supports our beliefs and honors our decisions for our children? Currently as far as I understand, the White Mountains has a huge lack of pediatric care, one licensed midwife and the only breast feeding support comes from the hospital staff that doubles as a nurse.
Back in 1978 when my first child was born in India we had a “hub” for womens support which were abound. We didn’t look for credentialed women who had a long chain of alphabet letters next to their names…no it was our Aunties and Grandmas, our next door neighbor women friends and our peers. These were the women we surrounded ourselves with during these times of profound change. Changes that would effect our entire life and the lives of our future children.
Where has our women support system gone?
The White Mountains is part of the Colorado Plateau in the high country of Northeast Arizona. Our neighboring communities include Pinetop-lakeside, Showlow, Greer, Springerville, Eager, McNary, White River, Heber-Overgaard, St Johns in the Apache Sitgreves county and Snowflake, Tarlor, Holbrook, Winslow, Shumway, Woodruff, and the Navajo/Hopi reservation. I will include and Payson along in our neighboring communities.
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