Making Births Safe: Haiti

The Haiti: Make Births Safe campaign has advanced a number of improvements in maternal and child health care in northern Haiti.  These highlights include:

• Decreasing newborn mortality: Supported aquality improvement initiative with colleagues inthe Pediatric Department of Justinian UniversityHospital that led to a 67% decrease in thechance of a newborn dying  in the pediatric unitin 2014 compared to 2013.

• Family planning: In collaboration with a research teamfrom Emory University School of Medicine, completeda study of abortion practices in Cap-Haitien. Whileabortion is illegal in Haiti, the study found that womenare knowledgeable about methods to induce abortion,but often delay seeking post-abortion care due toperceived stigma from health care providers. The studyalso highlighted high levels of unmet need for familyplanning in Cap-Haitien. The ndings of the studywere presented to partners throughout the Ministry ofHealth and potential strategies to address these issuesare being discussed with partners.
• Safer births: Advanced our collaborative ‘Haiti: MakeBirths Safe’ initiative with Haiti Hospital Appeal by jointly initiating a 3-year project that will expandcommunity- based maternal and child health servicesto previously underserved areas in Quartier Morin andthe Cap-Haitien section of Bande du Nord.
• Nutrition Research: Collaborated with WashingtonUniversity to conduct a study that was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (January 2014). Itshowed that supplementation can have a positive effect onstunting, but the effects are limited in context of ongoingdiarrheal illness. Konbit Sante staff joined other partnerorganizations to share the results in Port- au-Prince tothe Haitian Ministry of Health and others; a presentationthat was lmed for both national television and radio

These achevements were possible because of your support.  You can contact us directly at anytime at info@healthybirthing.org, or through the implementing partners of this campaign:

Konbit Sante- www.healthyhaiti.org

Haiti Hospital Appeal: www.haitihospitalappeal.org 

Please help us congratulate William from New York, who will be bringing his equally excited girlfriend, Sarah, to the set of Downton Abbey and dinner at the Criterion restaurant with actress Laura Carmichael.

William took part in our sweepstakes by donating to support the campaign, Haiti: Make Births Safe.

When we shared the news with William, he explained, "The opportunity to meet Laura Carmichael and be briefly immersed in the Downton Abbey universe is the chance of a lifetime. When I saw the Laura Carmichael experience benefiting Haiti: Make Births Safe, I was inspired to give. All women should have the right to have a safe birth and Haiti has had so many difficulties and challenges."

Stay tuned for more opportunities to support the Haiti:Make Births Safe campaign and future chances to win!

In the meantime, we are asking all supporters to help assemble and send us birthing kits so that we can send them to Haiti to be given out at our mobile outreach clinics for pregnant women.

Konbit Sante is sending a 40 foot shipping container this summer, from Maine to Haiti. We already have over 1,000 birthing kits but we need more!  Attached is a simple guide to making safe birthing kits.  We have had great success with schools, groups, churches and mother's groups joining together to assemble and send us birthing kits.

 You can reach us at 207 347 6733/info@konbitsante.org at any time with any questions or concerns.

• Birthing Kit Flyer (DOCX)