UNFPA rushes reproductive health supplies to Haiti

27 January 2010

Source: UNFPA

It's estimated that some 63,000 pregnant Haitian women face the prospect of giving birth in the aftermath of the earthquake.

Pregnant women's health needs

Of these 7,000 of these women are expected to give birth in the next month. Fifteen per cent of the pregnancies will require emergency care for life-threatening complications. Newborns face even higher risk.

UNFPA responds

One of UNFPA's top priorities is protecting the lives of mothers and their newborns. UNFPA in Haiti has already supplied 18 safe delivery and reproductive health kits to still-standing hospitals, NGOs and mobile clinics with enough supplies to meet the needs of 150,000 women for three months. The kits were in a warehouse in Port-au-Prince that escaped damaged, allowing for rapid distribution of life-saving medicines, supplies and equipment for sterile deliveries, Caesarean surgeries and treatment of other reproductive health issues.

Shortages of humanitarian workers

When the earthquake hit, Haiti's Ministry of Women was in a meeting with 20 development partners who work with the UNFPA. Almost everyone in the meeting was killed or injured.  "It's very tragic," said Dr. Jemilah Mahmood, chief of UNFPA's humanitarian response team. "You lose the people who could respond and support these communities."

Risks faced by pregnant women

Of the 3 million people affected by the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti, and the aftershocks that continued as recently as Jan. 20, an estimated 63,000 are pregnant women. In the month ahead, 7,000 women are expected to deliver. Giving birth or seeking prenatal care in a city where even the presidential plaza is destroyed poses countless risks to women in Port-au-Prince and throughout the quake region. The New-York based UNFPA has spearheaded efforts to help minimize the risks these women face.

Logisitcal problems

"The challenge for Haiti is logistics," Mahmood said. "We do not want pregnant women, or women and girls overall, to fall off the radar screen."

Even before the earthquake, giving birth in Haiti was no easy feat. The country has the highest maternal mortality rate in the Northern Hemisphere. For every 100,000 births, 670 mothers do not survive. Fifteen percent of all births before the earthquake had complications that required hospital care, such as hemorrhaging and high blood pressure in the mother, according to the UNFPA.

The UNFPA had 42 staff members in Haiti before the earthquake. They also worked with Haitian midwives to help women deliver safely. Some of their staff were injured and traumatized in the earthquake, though it's unknown how many members, so the organization is currently assessing how many more people to send to Haiti.

Distibuting essential items

To help combat the earthquake's impact on expectant mothers, the agency is currently distributing delivery kits to any visibly pregnant women. It includes a clean cloth, a sterile blade, a plastic sheet and other tools in case a mother can't reach a clinic or hospital in time.

They are also giving 'dignity kits' to all women and girls, which include sanitary napkins, moist towelettes and fresh pairs of underwear.

Challenges facing the health system

Haiti's health care system took a huge hit in the earthquake, as many hospitals and clinics in the capital were damaged or destroyed. It's not currently known how many people in Haiti's Ministry of Health survived. Hospitals and clinics that are still functioning are overwhelmed with those seeking treatment from serious injuries. Meanwhile, medical supplies are still scarce, despite huge international relief efforts.

The U.N. hopes to bring in more medical supplies soon by air, as well as by road, through the Dominican Republic.

During this crisis, some pregnant women have been forced to give birth without medical supervision and in an unclean environment. Many women who survived the earthquake are now living in makeshift tents, made from bed sheets and sticks, according to the UNFPA. Some doctors have reported doing Caesarean sections and deliveries on park benches while they waited for their hospital's maternity ward to reopen on Jan. 18.