Fundraising letter November 2025

My name is Jessica, and I want to tell you a story. My story.  My experience in Guatemala with Baby's Breath was an incredible gift...to ME! I never expected to have come back home to Minnesota with more than I brought down...and that suitcase of supplies was  heavy! Ha! But I returned with a full heart that comes from sharing something special with the comadronas (midwives) of the San Juan Sacatepéquez area of this beautiful country.  

We came as nurses with knowledge and supplies to share. But in getting to know these women, I realized they had tremendous life experience from serving the mothers of their  communities faithfully over many decades. This project was simply adding to their skills and, for some, certifying their abilities through the program completion certificate. At the end of  each day of teaching the groups all left with faces beaming.  

The infant resuscitation certificates provided each with an increased level of confidence in  themselves which ripples into their respective communities. I left each day of teaching with a  strong sense of pride and connection with these women that did not need any translation. I am  so grateful for my time in Guatemala and plans are in the works for me to return in  2026!

Thank you, Baby's Breath, for this beautiful opportunity! 

My thanks to Jessica for this beautifully written tribute to her experience with Baby’s Breath Project! 

We are currently preparing for our next trip in January 2026. We have one team of talented nurses, nurse practitioners and doctors who are giving their time toward teaching the Helping Babies Breathe program to midwives, nurses and firefighters. We have been granted permission by the Ministry of Health to return  

to San Juan Sacatepéquez (north of Guatemala City) to teach our program in their jurisdiction.  

For those of you who are not familiar with our organization, we teach some basic resuscitation skills for those people who attend a birth. The  focus is on the “Golden Minute”, the first minute of life in which a baby needs to start  breathing. If they are not crying or breathing, the birth attendant needs the skills to recognize  this and stimulate the baby to breathe and/or initiate the first breath

with a bag and mask.  Most of the people who attend our classes are not able to acquire the basic equipment and supplies needed to resuscitate an infant who is not breathing. We feel that it is important for them to have this equipment when they complete the Helping Babies Breathe training. Therefore, each person receives a backpack that has a resuscitation bag and two masks, suction bulb, surgical towels, diapers,  hats, umbilical tape, thermometer, scissors, soap and the Helping Babies Breathe reference guide in Spanish. 

The volunteers are responsible for their own airfare and are generous in giving up their vacation time for these trips. Baby's Breath Project pays for all of their expenses while they are in Guatemala, which include lodging, meals and transportation. In addition, Baby’s Breath also pays for the costs of the educational materials that we use while teaching and the translators for both Spanish and the indigenous languages. We also provide a snack and lunch for the translators  and midwives each teaching day. 

As we enter this season of giving, we hope that you will consider supporting our January team!! Baby’s Breath Project is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, so your donation is tax deductible.  You can also make your contribution through our website: www.babysbreathproject.org. 

We hope that this finds you all well. Our sincere  thanks for your support! 

Muchas gracias, 

Meg Dornfeld, Director 

Baby’s Breath Project 7084 Cahill Road 

Edina, MN 55439 

babysbreathgua@gmail.com

Reflecting on 15 Years of Teaching Life-Saving Skills in Guatemala.

November 2023

Dear friends,

I can’t believe that we have been teaching in Guatemala for 15 years now! And in these 15 years, we have taught over 1,000 nurses, midwives and firefighters! Initially we taught infant resuscitation and stabilization for nurses in hospital environments; but in the last 11 years, we turned our attention to the more rural areas of Guatemala to teach midwives. After several years firefighters and nurses who had heard about our training also began to attend our classes.

Baby’s Breath Project utilizes a program called Helping Babies Breathe which focuses on the first minute of life, or the “Golden Minute” in which a baby needs to start breathing. If they are not breathing, we teach the skills needed to stimulate the baby to breathe and/or give the baby breaths with a bag and mask. During the six-to-eight-hour class the participants are immersed in role playing on how to care for the mother and the baby. We teach the initial steps that go from a routine birth to a birth where the baby is not breathing.

In order for our program to be successful, we also feel that it is important to give them the equipment needed for resuscitation. Each midwife receives a backpack that has a resuscitation bag and mask, suction bulb, surgical towels, diapers, hats, umbilical tape, soap, thermometer and the Helping Babies Breathe reference book.

We are truly grateful for the volunteer nurses and doctors who have traveled to Guatemala over these many years! Their wisdom, enthusiasm and welcoming attitude is what generates our successful classes. We arrange for a translator for each of our volunteers and at times, if some of the midwives do not understand Spanish, we hire translators that can speak their indigenous language. Their help and friendship over the years is invaluable!

Of course, all of our trips have a price tag. 98% of our budget goes toward accommodations and meals for our team members; lunches and snacks for the midwives, firefighters or nurses who are attending our classes; transportation needs within Guatemala; the location for teaching our classes; the medical equipment included in the backpacks; and translator stipends. The remaining 2% of the budget goes toward miscellaneous operating expenses, outreach and fundraising. There are no salaried positions in our organization. All of our volunteers pay for their own airfare and are generous in giving up their vacation time for these trips.

We hope this finds all of you well. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers in January 2024 when a team of 11 of us return to teach in El Tejar, Guatemala.

One of my favorite quotes is from Mother Teresa, “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”

Baby’s Breath Project is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, so your donation is tax deductible. You can also make your contribution through our website: www.babysbreathproject.org. We invite you to check out a 10-minute video at our website covering our trip in March 2023.

Muchas gracias,

Meg Dornfeld, Director

Guatemala Trip January 2022

Dear Friends,

After a one-year break because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this past January found us in a new town which was more centralized and accessible for those students needing to use public transportation. The mayor of El Tejar, Chimaltenango, Guatemala (30 miles west of Guatemala City) provided us with rooms in a fine motel which had a large and open teaching space where we could have our classes for the midwives, nurses and fire personnel. There was also a couple of areas for eating outside in the warm sunshine when we had our breaks and lunch, and the food was excellent!

We did set up more specific guidelines in order to decrease the chances of getting COVID-19. Rather than a nurse and translator teaching four to six students at each table, we limited it to two. Everyone wore a mask at all times. Students ate in a different area than the team. In the past, we have often had our teams sharing rooms while in Guatemala, but this year each person was provided their own room. At the end of the trip when we were required to get tested before re-entering the United States, we were happy to celebrate that all of our tests came back negative!

We continue to utilize the program “Helping Babies Breathe” developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The emphasis of this program is to assess whether or not an infant is breathing at birth and the steps to take before giving breaths with a bag and mask within the first minute of life (“The Golden Minute”). We continue to give each of the students a backpack filled with the supplies necessary to put their training to use. We also provided a pamphlet that was designed by one of our former team members, Annie Borman, that touched on more of the essentials of newborn care. We were able to accomplish all of this in one day for each of our three days of students.

We appreciate hearing the midwives’ stories and sharing their expertise as we provide our knowledge of resuscitating a baby. One student told us she had observed another midwife delivering a baby who was not breathing. The midwife practiced the steps we taught, then gave the baby some breaths with the bag and mask and the baby started to breathe. She questioned the midwife about where she had learned to do the resuscitation skills and was told that she had taken our class a couple of years ago. I am so happy that baby had a chance in life and proud of that midwife!! We had a successful week of teaching 23 midwives, nurses and fire personnel.

Again, our success lies with the nurses and translators who teach with each of the groups of students. Their knowledge, guidance, patience and respect inspire these students to do their very best. All of our nurses this January had traveled with Baby’s Breath Project in the past. A very big thanks to Leeann Krueger, RN; Christine Johnson, RN; Shannon Grovum, RN: and Allie Mareck, RN. And our sincere gratitude for our translators from Guatemala: Kiki, Sassy, Dulce and Selena.

Quite a few nurses have already approached us about going back to Guatemala in January of 2023. We are hoping that we will have the funds to support two teams in Guatemala for next year – we know there are plenty of midwives, nurses and fire personnel waiting for the opportunity to attend – and we hope to teach over 100 students in 2023.

Please note: Baby’s Breath Project has changed our address. We will be located at 7084 Cahill Road, Edina, MN 55439. Thanks to everyone for your generous support of our organization!

Con mis mejores deseos (with warmest regards),

Meg Dornfeld, Director

www.babysbreathproject.org

babysbreathgua@gmail.com