The midwife got the call late at night: A woman from a small neighboring island was in active labor and had made the journey to the nearest port. An ambulance was bringing her to Bahai Arugaan ni Maria.

“She was able to hold the baby in,” recalled Teresa Maniego, COO at the maternity clinic, which is located in the province of Palawan, in the Philippines. “But as soon as they parked in the parking lot, the solar lights started lighting up.”

The woman didn’t make it indoors fast enough, and a midwife helped her give birth just outside the ambulance.

Maniego wasn’t surprised. In the rural province where Bahai Arugaan is located, she explained, reliable electricity is hard to come by. The clinic can be seen from far away at night, simply because it’s brightly lit up – thanks to a solar installation funded by Direct Relief’s Power for Health initiative.

A $50,000 grant from Direct Relief funds Bahai Arugaan’s solar power system, as well as the administrative, logistics, and maintenance costs associated with ensuring it continues to run well. As of August 2024, the entire birthing center became fully powered by this solar installation and no longer relies on the regional grid, which Maniego said is subject to interruptions that have the potential to affect patient care.

Bahai Arugaan ni Maria, a reproductive and maternal health facility as well as a birthing center, is part of the Buma Sehat Foundation, founded by renowned midwife Ibu Robin Lim. Lim, a human rights advocate, is also a proponent of a gentler and more holistic approach to maternal health and birthing, especially for women in rural and lower-resourced medical settings.

For pregnant women arriving from miles around, the well-lit birthing center is a beacon of comfort where they’ll receive high-quality, gentle care in a well-maintained facility.

“Some give birth as soon as they enter the gate,” Maniego said. “Some of them would reach the parking lot.”

Even for people who aren’t pregnant, like weary travelers, the clinic feels like a place of safety.

“People will stop in front of the clinic, and take a rest, because there’s just light,” Maniego said. “It’s just such an amazing thing: At Bahai Arugaan, there’s always light. People feel safe stopping here.”

The solar installation powers all lighting, ventilation, cold storage, and other needs throughout the clinic itself. It also powers the huts where new families stay together after labor, and the well-lit gardens where Bahai Arugaan’s staff grow Malabar spinach, pigeon peas, and other nutritious foods to bolster their patients’ prenatal diets.

“It’s literally a farm,” Maniego said of the property. The lights even keep looters out of the garden beds, ensuring that the food staff members grow is given to pregnant women.

Currently, about 85% of the pregnancies Bahai Arugaan’s midwives attend are those of Indigenous women from surrounding communities. But that doesn’t need to be the case, Maniego said: “Whatever part of the Philippines you’re from, it doesn’t matter. You can come here to birth.”

The ventilated clinic rooms are also more comfortable for women who might otherwise labor in heat above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Midwives don’t just attend births; they also care for women throughout their pregnancies and after delivery. The nutritious crops they grow are part of a larger effort to help local women eat protein every day during their pregnancies, and give them access to healthy vegetables. They’re also encouraging women to come earlier for their deliveries.

“Some of them won’t call until the baby is crowning,” Maniego said. “The challenge really is making sure we reach them on time.”

Women in labor often arrive, lying down, in motorcycle sidecars, after long journeys down from their mountain communities.

“It’s pitch black when you drive at night,” Maniego said. “Bahai Arugaan is the only place that you see.”