Robin Lim: Peace Begins at Birth
Robin Lim (Mother Robin or Ibu Robin) is a Midwife and founder of Yayasan Bumi Sehat (Healthy Mother Earth Foundation) Health Clinics. Since 2003 she has worked with her team to combat Indonesia’s high maternal and infant mortality rates. She was recently awarded the 2011 CNN Hero of the Year award by the CNN News Network for helping thousands of low income women in Indonesia with healthy pregnancy and birth services.
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ABOUT Robin Lim
“Robin Lim is the mother of eight children of her own, and author of many books related to infant and maternal health. She became a midwife after several personal tragedies including the death of her sister (and her baby) from complications during pregnancy, and the loss of her best friend and one of the midwives who delivered one of her own children.
Robin and her husband Wil sold their home in Hawaii and moved the family to Bali. There, she volunteered to help local midwives deliver babies in various homes. As the demand for her services grew, she decided to obtain formal Midwife Certification. She is now a Certified Professional Midwife, North American Registry of Midwives and Ikatan Bidan Indonesia.
In 2003, with help from the Balinese community and donations from friends across the globe, Robin and her husband opened the first Yayasan Bumi Sehat Clinic. Yayasan Bumi Sehat birthing sanctuaries offer free prenatal care, birthing services and medical aid to anyone who needs it in Indonesia, where the average family earns the equivalent of $8 a day.
A normal hospital delivery without complications costs around $70. A caesarean section can cost more than $700. Indonesia’s high maternal and infant mortality rates are caused in part by these costs which many women cannot meet. In turn, their lives and the lives of their babies are at risk.
From its beginnings as a Community Health and Childbirth Clinic in Bali, she took the Bumi Sehat Foundation to Aceh following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. Together, the two clinics have facilitated the birth of more than 5,000 babies. And when earthquakes struck, Robin took the project to Yogyakarta in 2006, Padang in 2008 and Haiti in 2010.”
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