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or the past decade, Ubud-based midwife Robin Lim has turned the “gentle birth” technique into a safer and trendy choice among expecting mothers.

The 56-year-old who recently was awarded the 2011 CNN Hero of the Year award continues to fight for her cause as she begins raising funds for the construction of her new clinic.

The gentle birth technique, also known as waterbirth, involves the expecting mother lying in a tub of warm water, which provides the baby with a gentle transition into the world as it protects the umbilical cord and placenta and avoids separating the mother and her newborn.

Last year, Indonesia’s maternal mortality rate (MMR) was at 228 per 100,000 living births, which is the highest rate in Southeast Asia. Indonesia is targeting to minimize its MMR to 102 by 2015.

“Water birth is a simple thing. It’s a normal birth using water to reduce pain. Now it is a big fad. Everybody wants a waterbirth. All nations have started seeing the intelligence of midwives to mother care, woman to woman care,”
said Robin, the founder and executive director of the non-profit organization Yayasan Bumi Sehat (Healthy Mother Earth Foundation), which runs a birthing clinic in Nyuh Kuning village, Ubud, Bali, and a tsunami-relief clinic in
Samatiga, Aceh.

Last year, the 59 personnel, consisting of doctors, midwives and nurses, at her Nyuh Kuning clinic, provided free community healthcare, prenatal care, post-partum care and pediatric care services to some 33,000 patients, mostly from poor families.

The current clinic, which stands on leased land whose contract expires in three-and-a-half years, had experienced some damages, after an earthquake last November.

“The clinic we are in now is not safe from earthquakes. We had a lot of damage there. So it was frightening for me because there are mothers and babies. When the earthquake happened, we had to move them out,” Robin said during a Wednesday press conference for Sunday fund-raising event titled “Sounds of Life” organized by
Waterbom Bali in Kuta.

The number of patients seeking treatment in the current clinic fluctuates, with up to 60 children and 40 pregnant mothers at the clinic, and several births taking place on busy days.

“We never turn anyone away. Two years ago, we had nine babies in 20 hours. Sometimes we moved patients to my house because we didn’t have enough beds,” said Robin, who hopes that the new earthquake-resistance clinic, which would be three times the size of the current one, will be complete this year.

Robin said that all of the US$300,000 prize money she received with the CNN award would be spent on the construction of the clinic. It will stand on nearby land, which had been acquired through the funding of multiple donors over the past four years.

“Over 4,000 babies have been born in Bumi Sehat. So, we need new space. The $300,000 is about one quarter of what we really need,” Robin said.

Robin, who was born in 1956 to a father of native American, German and Irish descent and a mother of Chinese and Philippine descent, became a devoted midwife after the death of her sister due to a pregnancy complication.

Robin, a mother of eight, recalled how grateful she was after a donor came to rescue her Ubud clinic, which almost closed due to a lack of operational funding in January last year.

“Sometimes, I still worry, thinking whether we’ll be able to pay the electricity. That’s why I never stop working in front of the computer to raise for funds,” she said.

Besides its main birthing services, Bumi Sehat also runs its own organic garden, recycling activities, and youth center with free English and computer courses for the village’s poor children.

“Our earth needs more people like Ibu Robin. Thus, please continue your support,” said Waterbom Bali director of operations Sayan Gulino. The Sunday’s fund-raising event will run from 7 p.m. until 1 a.m., and the sales of the tickets, which cost Rp 250,000 each, will be put toward the development of Bumi Sehat’s new clinic.

It will feature a live auction, contemporary-traditional acrobatic dance and musical talents performances, including Soldiers of Sounds, Stephanie Bovill, and DJ David J, to name a few.