Haitian pregnant women at risk

An estimated 63,000 pregnant Haitian women are estimated to be among the 3 million people affected by this month’s earthquake. (UMNS photo by Mike DuBose)

Among the survivors of the deadly earthquake in Haiti is an especially vulnerable, yet mostly invisible population: more than 63,000 pregnant Haitian women. They are without access to medical care or even a sanitary place to give birth.

Estimates that there could be so many pregnant women among the 3 million people affected by Haiti’s earthquake have led to an urgent appeal to meet their emergency maternal health needs.

The current situation is putting the lives of thousands of women and their infants at risk from complications related to pregnancy and child birth.

The earthquake has devastated Haiti’s health system. Many of the hospitals and clinics in Port–au-Prince have been damaged. The remaining can barely handle the thousands in need of medical care, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The current situation is putting the lives of thousands of women and their infants at risk from complications related to pregnancy and child birth.

Risk complications higher

It’s not surprising that when disaster strikes, the risk for miscarriage, stillbirth and other complications is higher. The director of Hopitale Generale, said that doctors at the hospital had performed two Caesarean sections and assisted two regular deliveries on a park bench outside the hospital.

While the earthquake has exacerbated the dangers for pregnant women and their children in Haiti, the dire need for access to reproductive health care, especially family planning, extends far beyond the current crisis. UNFPA reports that Haiti had the highest maternal mortality rate in the Western hemisphere (670 per 100,000 live births) before the earthquake.

Effectively addressing the unmet need for family planning … is a matter of life or death.

A majority of married women would like to have no more children, but without access to family planning, they have no way to prevent a pregnancy. With close to 40% of women ages 15-49 lacking modern contraception, Haiti has experienced an explosion in population, according to the Guttmacher Policy Review. This is especially so among the most impoverished sectors of society, who are most likely to have no access to health care.

The resulting cycle of poverty is nearly inescapable for those born into it.

Family planning need

Effectively addressing the unmet need for family planning, both in Haiti and around the globe, is a matter of life or death. The World Health Organization estimates that every minute a woman dies from complications during pregnancy or childbirth. This leaves more than two million children motherless each year.

But if all women were empowered to plan and space their pregnancies as they wished, maternal mortality would drop by a third. Like all women around the world, Haitians want healthy lives for themselves and for their families.

As relief continues to pour into the country and as plans are formed to rebuild what has been lost, we should insist that our foreign assistance includes effective strategies for ensuring that family planning services are available to all women who want and need them.

For more information, contact Katey Zeh via e-mail or call (704) 604-6770.

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