As AmeriCares works to strengthen health
care in Haiti, there is a special
focus on the health of pregnant women, new mothers and babies. Even before the
2010 earthquake destroyed much of Haiti’s health care system, Haiti had one of
highest rates of maternal and infant mortality in the world. Much of the $54
million in aid that AmeriCares has delivered to Haiti since the earthquake goes
to support mothers and children.
Healthy
Start: Mothers often carry their children for 10 hours to reach
the Real Hope for Haiti clinic in the hills above Port-au-Prince. Real Hope for
Haiti is just one of the 30 core partners that AmeriCares supports across Haiti
with medicines, nutritional supplements and counseling for mothers and
children. Every day, the waiting room is filled with mothers worried about
their baby’s health. Ninety severely malnourished children live here. “When
they smile and start playing, you know they are going to make it,” explained clinic
director Lori Moise.
Urgent Care:
After the 2010 earthquake, calls to the maternity ambulance serving the
southwestern city of Jeremie increased by 60 percent. Without ambulance service,
women were faced with the struggle of walking up to 18 hours for care, often
delivering their babies on the road. In 2011, AmeriCares funded not only a new
ambulance—doubling the capacity—but also the cost of trained midwives and
nurses who care for patients en route. The Haitian Health Foundation, which
operates the ambulances, estimates the new vehicle has helped save the lives of
more than 70 expectant mothers in its first six months of operation.
Hospital Rescue: One
Sunday last October, the number of pregnant women arriving at the free
maternity hospital in Port-au-Prince doubled, then tripled. “Hundreds of
pregnant women ready to deliver their babies walked, rode or were carried to
the hospital,” said Jemps Civil, program associate for AmeriCares Haiti. The
city’s only other maternity hospital had suddenly closed. Because it was
Sunday, the staff had no way to get extra medicines and supplies. AmeriCares made
a crucial delivery. “We don’t know what the hospital would do without that
quick emergency response of AmeriCares,” said hospital administrator Pierre
Michel Lumene.
