After much anticipation, Haiti Village Health was proud to host our first Traditional Birth Attendant training for the Bas Limbe region. This was made possible thanks to the support of Americare.
Thanks to the generous support of the Canadian Medical Foundation, we, at Haiti Village Health, have been able to continue and pursue our Women’s Health initiatives. HVH, our Santé Pou Yo personnel and the population they serve extend their thanks. Our maternal health services have taken full force as we enrich the prenatal and postpartum outreach programs targeting all pregnant women in the surrounding villages.
Thanks to the grant from AmeriCares, HVH has so far provided three training sessions for traditional birth attendants (TBAs) in the Bas Limbe area. Up to 18 TBAs have attended each of these sessions. We have so far discussed prenatal care, general anatomy, and normal vaginal delivery.
“My cousin died last night,” our manager Santo told me early on Sunday morning. "She gave birth to a healthy baby, but the placenta did not come out. This was her third child.” Santo’s cousin lives in Labadee, close to the beautiful Royal Caribbean Cruise ship port. It is a village which is more prosperous than other villages in Northern Haiti, due to the abundance of jobs provided by the cruise ship.
At the end of the day, as I thought back to the morning, I couldn’t believe that it was still the same day. We woke up early and with sadness said our first goodbyes as our team started to break up. Amy, Emily and Heather left for the airport. We had a leisure breakfast as we looked forward to a relaxing day in Cap Haitien and the Citadel. As it turned out it was not a relaxing day at all, yet we are all grateful for the experience we had.
