Reproductive Health Haiti Project #44606

Expand Maternal Healthcare in Northern Haiti

by Care 2 Communities

Project Report | Sep 28, 2021
Improving Maternal Health Services for Patients

By Racha Yehia | Managing Director

Over the last couple of months, C2C’s Maternal Health Program has grown in popularity even more--we now have a 1-2 month waiting list for two of the three clinics that offer these services!

Even though the program is already popular, we are always trying to improve its quality and efficiency. Thanks to the support of GlobalGiving donors, we are currently innovating new ways to increase patient throughput and reduce waiting times (especially in the laboratory). One of the first changes we made was to provide our laboratories with a second microscope. From the 25 women we enroll for the day, eight of them are new patients, and the rest are for follow-ups. The newly-admitted patients have ten laboratory tests, which take the most time. The second microscope will reduce the time the laboratory technicians take to deliver critical results. We are also looking at soliciting the expert advice of an OB-GYN specializing in global health to see how we can modify the maternal health protocol and see more patients.

Thanks to the generosity of our GlobalGiving community, since the beginning of 2021, we have had 2,048 antenatal care visits across three clinics! Of those, we have had more than 385 women come for at least four antenatal visits. In addition, we have administered more than 1,000 Diphtheria vaccine shots to maximize the maternal antibody response and passive antibody transfer in the newborn. We have also conducted more than 942 ultrasound tests.

Furthermore, our community health team is working hard organizing postnatal visits to check on the health status of the new mothers and babies. The team is also encouraging mothers to come to the clinic and get their children vaccinated and do a follow-up consultation with our doctors.

All this cannot be done without the support and generosity of the general population. Still, the Maternal Health Program is a highly in-demand service at all our clinics (currently it is in three of our seven clinics). We are hoping to be able to expand it to the rest of our network of clinics in the near future.

Permalink

Jun 2, 2021
6 Months of Maternal Healthcare in Bayeux!

By Racha Yehia | Managing Director

Thanks to the generosity of GlobalGiving community members like you, C2C launched the maternal health program in the rural area of Bayeux in October 2020 and has consulted with pregnant women every Monday since. From the start, the program was managed by our amazing team, consisting of an OBGYN, a midwife, and a registration nurse. Since our doors first opened, we have recorded 208 antenatal care visits!

In addition to promoting the program within our clinic, our community health team promotes it in the different communities that surround the clinic as well, in order to increase the popularity of the program and spread awareness through word-of-mouth. When we began the program in October, we were only seeing about 7 patients per day—now, we are seeing 17 patients per day! Some of these patients travel great distances to come to our clinic, even from an hour away. In the region of Bayeux, C2C is the only organization providing antenatal care consultations in a catchment area of about 10,000 people. Without your support, pregnant women in this area would not be able to access the level of care they need to ensure healthy pregnancies and deliveries.

We are committed to providing care that is accessible to poor and low-income women. In surrounding areas, an ultrasound test can cost $15-20 each on top of a consultation fee—too expensive for the women we serve. At C2C, our patients love that ultrasounds are included in our low bundle price. Another aspect that our patients love about our program and that has helped increase our patient volume is the care and attention our amazing staff gives each patient that comes to our clinic. We limit our volume to 25 patients a day to ensure that each pregnant woman receives adequate time with the midwife and the OBGYN. In addition to medical care, we also provide each woman with educational information on their pregnancy, reproductive health, and newborn health. We also call each woman to remind them of their appointments so that they attend all of the recommended visits, and after they have given birth, we call again to check on the woman and the newborn's health status.

We are so grateful to the GlobalGiving community for making our maternal health program possible in Bayeux and we are so excited to continue to update you on the progress of the program and the expansion of the program to other clinics in the future! Mèsi anpil!

Permalink

Feb 2, 2021
How C2C Provides Quality Maternal Care in Haiti

By Racha Yehia | Managing Director

C2C’s maternal health program currently runs at three C2C clinics: Camp Coq, l’Acul du Nord, and, thanks to the support of the GlobalGiving community, Bayeux. Our team is made up of an OBGYN, a midwife, and an auxiliary nurse. The same team works at our three sites, providing consistency and stability across the clinics. As of this month, the team is being managed by our Chief Medical Officer, which provides more accountability and reassurance.

The team goes once a week to each of our three clinics and provides prenatal care to the rural population. We usually have a maximum capacity of 25 patients a day. However, with the increased popularity of our maternal health program in Camp Coq, we had to add two extra days of consultation a month so that we do not have to turn away any women and can consult everyone that enters our clinic. Currently, the total average number of prenatal visits per day is around 22.

The team provides high-quality medical consultation to pregnant women by following an established protocol which defines the visit schedule, systematic preventions, management of complications, and the indications for referral to the hospital. This protocol respects the recommendations of the Ministry of Health and WHO for prenatal follow-up. Also, service providers have at their disposal a brochure that details advice they should give to pregnant women.

In their last evaluation, the maternal health care providers had a very satisfactory rating for the greeting, counseling, and compliance with the protocol. When it comes to the maternal care package that we provide, it includes complete clinic assessment, laboratory tests, obstetric ultrasound, iron, and vitamin supplementation, childbirth planning, follow-up calls, and a postnatal home visit.

The midwife consults all pregnant women after they are registered by the auxiliary nurse. She assesses them, orders lab tests, and prescribes medication. Afterward, she refers them to the OBGYN. Usually, the OBGYN will see all women coming for their first and last visit, all women who need to have an ultrasound, and all women who have complications. The gynecologist manages those cases or refers them to the hospital if necessary. The auxiliary nurse calls the patients to remind them of their visit and check on their status. Then, she gives a list of the women who have given birth to the community health team so they can schedule a postnatal visit.

According to the maternal health staff, the majority of pregnancies monitored in the program are uncomplicated and have good outcomes. The rare complications are linked to early age pregnancies and high blood pressure. We usually can manage these cases in our clinics if detected early and there is almost no need to refer to the hospitals for complications.

In summary, the maternal health program works very well in our three clinics. Our hope for the future is to expand the program to our network of clinics.

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.