Over 30 years ago, my two daughters were born in a hospital. The first birth was an emergency C-section, which was scary, but I trusted my doctor. Back then, a C-section dictated my second delivery would be the same. I was blessed with two healthy daughters.
Recently, my daughters were having babies and at first I was nervous about their desire to have a more natural birth experience. Six years ago, finding a midwife in Kansas City and insurance to cover a home birth was a challenge for my oldest, but her experience was well worth it. My second daughter lives in Georgia, and it was even more difficult to find a midwife. She had to travel to 40 miles to a birthing center that provided midwifery services.
Then, I started working with Global Birthing Home Foundation, an organization based in Leawood. They support a maternal/birthing center in southwest rural Haiti. Maison de Naissance (translates “Home of Birth”) provides complete, quality care for mothers and babies. The difficulty of finding and affording a trained certified midwife there is far more than ever imagined in the US. A lack of transportation, financial resources, and healthcare professionals and facilities abound. According to the World Heath Organization’s report, less than 10% of women in rural Haiti have access to an obstetric professional. For our zone of service, 97% of women can and have accessed our services. In 2017, Maison de Naissance midwives have provided 3,738 consultations, including 322 deliveries, with ZERO maternal deaths.
In June 2017, I visited this well operated healthcare center for the first time in the middle of rural Haiti that is 100% Haitian staffed. Turning off a rough, narrow road, the clean, fresh looking building is definitely out of place. The day I visited, some women were having prenatal checkups and others were getting family planning consultations, all while well baby check-ups were happening. They were keeping records, had charts on wall, and everywhere you looked there was information for the mothers to see. There were no cars or parking lot, no strollers for children, and no air conditioning. Women had walked or got a ride on a motorbike to travel there, carrying their babies and other children with them.
If we have obstacles in Kansas City to quality maternal care (and we do, especially in African-American communities), imagine all the obstacles this birthing center overcomes to provide quality care in rural Haiti. As little as $600 covers everything needed for a baby’s birth at Maison de Naissance.
The six midwifes working there are amazing. They truly make the difference between life and death. They believe all moms and babies deserve quality maternal healthcare regardless of what country they call home. This birthing center has not only impacted the community health, but also its economics. As the founder, Dr. Betsy Wickstrom, has shared, “the whole community has thrived since we started in 2004. More homes have tin roofs instead of thatched roofs and cement floors instead of dirt. More farm animals can be seen as one drives up to the center.”
I could not help but compare my childbirth experience to my daughter’s. After seeing these experiences, both in Haiti and here in the United States, I cannot help but be a strong proponent of midwife and quality maternal care.
Follow Global Birthing Home Foundation on Facebook for updates, latest baby photos and help us keep this birthing center thriving through generous donations from moms helping each other!
