Starter Kit. Idea 117 of 500. Cluster 5
Fertility and maternity retreats, with the standard published and inspected
The mechanism, from the book
Ayurveda is a system of medicine the world already recognises and seeks out. The demand is there; what Sri Lanka needs is more of its own names, known and asked for abroad.
The first step
Write a one-page standard for a maternity retreat: the midwife or doctor on call, the nearest hospital and how far it is, the food, the rest, and what is not offered. Show it to a qualified midwife near you and ask whether she would put her name to it for a fee. Then ask a mothers' group of Sri Lankans abroad whether members would book. Written interest from 10 women is proof.
- Who pays first
- An expectant Sri Lankan mother abroad who wants rest near family, with a written, inspected standard she can show her own doctor.
- What leaves today
- No published, inspected standard exists for this kind of stay, so families who would come for it stay abroad and spend there.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Medical Council. Ask what registration doctors and midwives caring for visitors need.
- the area Medical Officer of Health. Ask what standard a maternity stay must meet.
Check before you spend
That doctors and midwives are registered, that emergency care is close by, and that the standard you publish is one you can actually meet.
Find out these three numbers
- What do families abroad pay for a maternity stay?
- How close is the nearest hospital with emergency care?
- What does an independent inspection cost?
A comparison from the book
Sri Lanka House. Chapter Seventeen
"None of that is a value. All of it is checkable, which is the only property that matters."
Publish the standard so families can check it before they come.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.