Mobile Clinics & Darwinlove in Roy Sec, Haiti
Haiti Day 1
Clancy and I arrived in Haiti yesterday after a long day of traveling for our visit with Midwives For Haiti (MFH). This morning we tagged along with MFH’s mobile midwifery clinic headed for their monthly visit to Roy Sec, a small rural community about five miles from the Dominican Republic. There were 12 of us (driver Ronel, Ronel’s cousin/mechanic Jonal, translator Gladius, Clancy, cameraman Belony, MFH grads Magdala, Marie-Ange, Philomene, Leurcile, Pluviose, student midwife Juslene and me) in the tricked-out jeep that’s filling in for their usual pink jeep while it’s in the shop.
We drove about three hours through towns with streets lined with people, shops, and concrete homes with corrugated metal roofs. The last hour was spent on a rough unpaved road where the homes turned from concrete to wood. We stopped periodically so Ronel and Jonal could address the various problems with the jeep (alternator, broken fan, etc.) — coolly, effectively, with no drama. Watching the people, the homes and the towns fly by in a jeep that sounded like a prop-engine plane was an experience. We drove over roads that were almost impassable and arrived covered in a thick layer of dust in Roy Sec at a small church complex that hosted the clinic. About 25 women waited in a breezy open-air building with a thatched roof. Most were there for their prenatal visit though five were there for their first postnatal visit with their newborns.
MFH visits 16 rural communities, each on a monthly basis. Many of the women who come to these clinics travel a long distance to get there and many would not receive any prenatal or postnatal care at all or have their pregnancy complications identified were it not for these clinics.
Madeline Joseph and Baby Juvenskie, 3 months.
We watched as the MFH staff unloaded all the equipment from the roof of the jeep (where Jonal had been riding). MFH graduate, Philomene and current MFH student, Juslene gave the women lessons on nutrition and the importance of saving money in case of a complication. They went through each patient’s chart together, weighed them, took their blood pressure, performed sonograms and analyzed their urine, all in this makeshift setting that totally worked.
Doere Clesonie came to the clinic with her 15 day-old daughter, Darwinlove, for the baby’s first postnatal check-up. Doere had come to the clinic every month for prenatal visits. Secure in the belief that she would have a normal birth, she Dore delivered her baby at home with a matron. She was prepared though to take a bus to the hospital in Belladere, about a one-hour drive from her home, if she had complications.
Doere and baby Darwinlove, 2 weeks old
Fedeline Lapaix came to the clinic for her third prenatal visit since May, Eight-months pregnant, Fedeline learned about the clinic from her father who attends the church on Sundays. One Sunday he heard an announcement from the priest that the MFH clinic would be there that Tuesday. He told his daughter and she’s been coming for prenatal care ever since.
Only half of Haitian women attend the World Health Organization’s recommended minimum of four prenatal visits but the pregnant women we spoke with had been coming monthly for several months. They learned it was valuable and they had good experiences. Some of them told friends and family and when they became pregnant they came too. It’s a ripple effect that hopefully, will help end maternal deaths and disabilities in Haiti.
We’re grateful to be here and to be part of the team that’s improving maternal healthcare for Haitian mothers. Check back next week for another blog about our work here in Haiti.
Written by Jessica Bowers and Clancy McCarty
