Expand Maternal Healthcare in Northern Haiti

Thanks to the generous support of our GlobalGiving community, our Maternal Health Program continues to strengthen prenatal, delivery, and postpartum care across the communities C2C serves in Haiti! This quarter's work combined community-based education, direct clinical services, and new efforts to engage fathers and traditional birth attendants as partners in safer pregnancies and deliveries.

Our routine interventions this period included:

• Raising community and institutional awareness of the need for an immediate prenatal consultation as soon as pregnancy is confirmed, within the first trimester
• Educating postpartum women on the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding
• Continued promotion of safe, hospital-based deliveries
• Outreach to new mothers encouraging immediate postpartum follow-up
• Preventive and follow-up phone calls to support continuity of care
• Close, in-person follow-up visits for nursing mothers within 0–3 days of delivery

Key Achievements

Mothers' Clubs. We launched mothers' clubs that group pregnant women based on gestational age, allowing for more targeted education and stronger encouragement to give birth in a hospital setting.

Fathers' Club. A new fathers' club was established, guided by a dedicated session plan that engages fathers and partners as active participants in family health and wellbeing.

Referral Coupons. We continued distributing promotional referral coupons to increase maternal health attendance across our network.

Training for Traditional Birth Attendants. A training curriculum for traditional birth attendants (matrones) was established across all communities served by C2C, a critical step toward safer deliveries even when women do not deliver at a hospital.

Staffing. We recruited a new midwife to fill our maternal health supervisor position.

Health Education. We facilitated educational sessions in clinics and showed educational videos covering maternal health and family planning, the importance of local foods, and hygienic care practices that strengthen immunity during pregnancy.

Postnatal Kits. Postnatal kits were distributed to breastfeeding women attending postpartum care.

HIV Screening. HIV screening for pregnant women, with systematic case management as needed, continued in 3 of our 8 clinics.

Our Results From This Quarter

First prenatal visits: 1,703

First prenatal visits in the first trimester: 662

Fourth prenatal visits: 519

Obstetric ultrasounds performed: 2,023

Hospital deliveries: 132

Postnatal consultations: 187

Strengths of Our Program

• Very satisfactory maternal health attendance across the network in unique patients
• Continued improvement in HIV screening and case management
• Several high-parity women enrolled during prenatal care voluntarily agreed to and underwent tubal ligation
• Continuous availability of care and supplements related to pregnancy monitoring and development

Challenges We're Addressing

Your support helps us continue working through several persistent challenges:

• Late entry to care. A significant number of patients still arrive for care after the first trimester, putting them at risk of delivering before completing the recommended minimum of four prenatal visits.
• Delivery setting. Even among women who complete all four prenatal visits and receive referral letters for hospital delivery, most still give birth with a traditional birth attendant. Shifting this deeply rooted behavior remains an ongoing focus, reflected in our new matrone training curriculum and mothers' and fathers' clubs initiative.
• Connectivity barriers. Preventive and reminder phone calls are frequently unsuccessful due to unreliable phone signals in the communities we serve.
• Equipment needs. A malfunctioning ultrasound machine in Bayeux is currently limiting our ability to provide obstetric ultrasounds at that site.

Looking Ahead

With continued support from our GlobalGiving community, we remain focused on encouraging earlier and more complete prenatal care, expanding the reach of our new mothers' and fathers' clubs, strengthening our partnership with traditional birth attendants, and addressing equipment and connectivity gaps that limit continuity of care. Thank you for making this progress possible.