Midwives for Haiti Trip Day 8

Saturday October 6th 2012

Home Sweet Home

Wow! Where did this week go?  Time has flown by, yet it also feels like each day was a week long. 

Today we took the long, bumpy, winding, hilly journey from Hinche back to Port-Au-Prince through the beautiful, yet nauseating mountains.  It was a long, hot ride and I very nearly tossed my cookies quite a few times.  There are no "rules of the road" here other than usually the bigger vehicle wins...  Thankfully Ronell our driver is very good and we made the trip unscathed. 

Our initial flight was delayed by an hour which gave me less than an hour to go through customs, claim by bags, recheck them and run 2 terminals to my flight home.  I was SO happy that I just made my flight!  It was so sweet, even though it was late, Josh and the kids were there to greet me with hugs and kisses.  Home Sweet Home!

The flight from Haiti to the US is always interesting since 90% are mission volunteers.  So many great stories and good vibes on that flight.  It is impossible to fully understand the poverty there unless you have lived it.  I am SO blessed to have had this opportunity and can't wait to come back! 

Midwives for Haiti Trip Day 7

Friday October 5th 2012

I can't believe this week has already flown by!  But I am so excited to get home to see Josh and the kiddos tomorrow night if all my flights go well. 

Today we all took a beautiful walk out on the hills behind the wonderful MFH house to watch the sunrise before we headed back to the hospital to check in on our patients from the week for one last time. 

The best thing that has changed at the hospital is Dr. Alice that is here with me has brought donated linens and  arraigned to have a bunch of washable pads and linen for the women to use.  Even more amazingly, she is personally paying a lady to wash and stock the supply daily to ensure the women have a dry place to lay after delivery.  She is just awesome!


We then visited a small women's embroidery shop and I was able to buy a beautiful table runner.  They do amazing work and we are going to hire them to embroider the MFH logo onto things for volunteers to buy. 

Then we were in charge of teaching the students for the day in the classroom in our house and had fun working case studies from the week with them.  Their graduation from the program is just 1 month away and it is a huge deal for them. We have loved listening to them practice singing songs they will perform together at the ceremony.

Then we went back to the orphanage and purchased some beautiful art work that the boys had made to sell to support their families. 

We then had a great time revisiting the history of MFH from it's very start in 2004 by going to the original location of their school in a nearby town of Panteousu. 

Of course we ended the night out on our porch playing cards and chatting away.  I am so glad I have been bless with being able to spend time with these amazing people who if it weren't for them this whole organization wouldn't exist, and the women of Haiti would be even worse off. 


I am ready to be home with my family, but I can't wait to return here and see all the great things to come!  We will head out for the rough 3-4hr drive back to Port-Au-prince bright and early tomorrow morning.  Hoping it is a much less eventful trip home this time around!

Midwives for Haiti Trip Day 6

Thursday October 4th, 2012

Today was a busy day!  I started out working at the hospital and had 3 deliveries.  Babies here are so often born already malnourished and so undersized.  We have been working all week with a mom that's baby was just 6 weeks early, but weighed 2 lbs.  She is SO tiny but so far is pulling through.  One of the deliveries today was a vaginal breech of a about 10 week early baby.  She had a heart rate and I bagged her for a while but she just had a few gasping breaths and the family didn't want to hold her. So we held her not wanting her to die alone.  But after a  few minutes she actually looked a bit pinker and was breathing.  So we were able to arrange to transfer to a better hospital.  She still doesn't have great odds, but at least they are trying.  She would have been fine if she were born back home.

After that intense morning we were happy to spend the afternoon hanging out at Masson Fortune orphanage.  It is an amazing place that takes such good care of the 250 kids they have.  We spent lots of time visiting with Brother Mike and Brother Harry and the kids. We had so much fun!

Then we walked through the town and stopped at the hospital to change the dressing on our poor burn patient then Dr. Steve and the pink jeep met us to drive us home in the dark.

We ended the night playing cards and learning the stories of the origins of Midwives for Haiti from the two people who have been there every step of the way.  Tomorrow evening we are going to visit the site of the very first class under a tree in a nearby town. 

Miwives for Haiti Trip Day 5

Wednesday October 3rd, 2012

Thanks for the many birthday wishes.  I do miss not being with Josh and the kids today, but it was a good day.  I went on the 90 min drive over very rough dirt "roads" and creeks to the remote town of Cerca-Carvajal.  It was a beautiful ride and the mountains were all around us.  I saw 55 women for prenatal check-ups and 8 women and babies for post partum check-ups between 9am and 3pm!  The only way this was possible was the fact that don't do any internal exams unless they think they are in labor.  I am quite certain I was able to find full term twins, but no u/s to confirm it.  It was her first prenatal visit and she had no idea when she was due.  Her belly measured 44cm, which is huge especially by Haitian standards, since they are so small.  And her tummy was all baby. I am pretty sure I felt a head at her pelvis and also at the top of her belly.  We were able to tell her that it is really important for her to try to get to a hospital to deliver due to the potential complications of twins, especially hemorrhaging after delivery. 

Tonight they have made brownies and homemade ice cream for my b-day and we are going to have some wine and try to watch the presidential debates on-line on a projector screen if our connection holds up.   

Midwives for Haiti Trip Day 4

Tuesday October 2nd 2012

We have such a great, dynamic group here this week!  As we were playing cards and drinking rum and coke tonight, we were already talking about trying to come down together again next year!

 Sadly, Ina May the MFH house cat (named after a famous midwife) lost 2 of her 8 week old kittens today :(  Those 2 have been sick and we kinda saw it coming, but it is SO sad to hear her meowing for them all night.  We are really hoping the last little kitten hangs in there, she is still quiet spunky.  

Today I spent the day working with the midwifery students in labor and delivery.  I treated a woman that was heartbreaking and a very good example of why the MFH program is so important, teaching these students how to provide safe, competent care. She delivered at home 8 days ago.  She then followed a very old Haitian tradition, of boiling leaves and then sitting her bottom over the steam.  Unfortunately, she got severe 3rd degree burns over her entire buttocks.  Since it happened 8 days ago and she was just now coming in for care she had lost all of the skin over her entire bottom.  It was awful!  She will be affected forever by this injury.  It is such a large area and skin grafts don't happen here.  Infection is a huge risk.  One of the doctors here with me was so moved by my description of this poor woman that we went back to redress her wounds and insert a bladder catheter this evening after hours.  It felt so good to help her and we were very proud that we restarted her IV, found and placed a catheter and redressed her wound all without the help of an interpreter!  Love and charades saw us through :).


This afternoon we went back to Azil feeding center/orphanage.  We spent time giving lots of vitamin and iron injections. It was necessary, but so sad.  We also got to help hold and feed the little ones.  The best part was playing with the 2-3 year olds.  They were SO happy for the attention and loved playing with us.  As we left we each had 3 or more little ones hugging onto our legs.  I want to take them all home with me! 

Midwives for Haiti Trip Day 3

Monday October 1st 2012

Today actually started last night with my first night shift.  I went with Jenna a CPM(lay midwife) from Maine that has spent a lot of time here and has a decent grasp of Creole.  She only has experience with normal labor and birth, so she was a great help, with the language barrier but not comfortable with the large volume of high risk patients we had last night.  The hospital only staffs 2 Haitian midwives to work at night and they are actually paid by MFH not the hospital or government.  One had called in sick so we went to help. 

I am so glad that I am used to co-managing high risk patients back home because we had 11 patients there with pre-eclampsia on a potentially dangerous medication, Mag running freely because they don't have IV pumps.  It was scary to try to do the complicated math to figure out drip rates to try not to over or under medicate them.  At home these patients have 1 to 1 nursing care and here they are just 1 of the 17 patients we had to look after for 12 hours. 

The above picture was obviously later morning after the sun had come up.  We did have electricity, but very little lights, so made things that much more challenging.  I was able to do 3 of the 4 deliveries.  It is so amazing to watch and listen to these women labor, knowing that pain medication is not an option. And fun to see that labor sounds the same in any language, which is good because other than Jenna I didn't have an interpreter, which was hard, but I somehow muddled through.  It is so weird how much I take for granted that our nurses do for us at home.  Here I was alone to help a woman labor, deliver and recover the baby and stabilize mom.  And these strong women would stand up within 10 minutes of delivering and get dressed and then walk to the postpartum ward! 
One patient that really bothered me was 30 weeks with severe asthma.  She sounded awful and needed a nebulizer treatment but we couldn't get one from the pharmacy until the morning.  It is so hard to realize that even when you know what to do to help someone, due to the broken system they may not get what they need.

The picture above is where they kept their medications.  It is a total mess of everything from empty vials to high risk medications.  The crazy thing is, in the middle of this busy, hectic night the Haitian midwife had a headache so she just went to an empty room and took a nap on the floor next to the cleaning lady! What a night!

Midwives for Haiti Trip Day 2

Sunday September 30th 2012

Today we took a early morning hike out in the countryside.  Then took a moto-taxi (motorbike with 3 of us on one) to Massion Fortune Orphanage and attended church with 1OO+ kids age 4-18 with only 2 adults supervising and it was amazing how well behaved they all were!  It was fun being able to recognize the Lord's Prayer and Amen in Creole. 

Then we unpacked supplies at the house, then we spent some time at Azil feeding center where kids and babies are sent when they have failure to thrive.  They do a great job, but it is so sad.  We just went from crib to crib holding babies and giving them some physical contact. 



Then we walked through town and the market which was a great look into Haitian life.  All the food at the market was covered with flies, but we just have to remind ourselves that all the food is well cooked.  What I really wanted to get a picture of was the raw cut up chicken pieces sitting out uncovered and unrefridgerated completely covered in flies! Ewww!

Tonight we had a couple rum and cokes and now got the call they need help at the hospital, so two of us are on our way :) I hope to have good stories for tomorrow!

Midwives for Haiti trip Day 1 - Arrival

Day 1 (Saturday September 29th)

 Well thankfully my flight down went perfectly!  As soon as I got my luggage in Port-au-prince the driver found me (the sign he was holding was a picture of a baby that he drew :) and we met up with the midwife and doctor from Virginia that are also volunteering here this week.  They are both very sweet and the OB doctor reminds me a lot of Dr. Carolyn Martin, my doctor I came here with last time.  She is totally open and down to earth and fun to talk to.  We then picked up Dr Steve Eads (the medical director for midwives for Haiti) and Nadine Brunk CNM (the founder of MFH) who just happen to be visiting here this month. It should be a great week, so interesting getting to hear all the behind the scenes stuff and talk to people who know all about it.

   On our way we stopped in Trianon and drove over giant ditches with the super pink MFH jeep, to get to the new birthcenter/medical clinic that is there.  It is very fresh and clean and should be a great addition to their community.  It will be staffed by two graduate midwives from our program. It is SO much nicer than the hospital we work at in Hinche!

Due to food spoilage, they don't kill any animals before they get to market, but they don't have special farm trucks to transport them, so they tie live chickens and goats by their feet and hang them all around their trucks.  I feel so bad for them, but I guess it keeps the food healthy.  We saw quite a few of these trucks on our 4 hour drive through the mountains from Port-Au-Prince to Hinche, in the central plateau.

MFH have moved into a new house since I was last here.  It is wonderful! They have electricity via a generator and running water.  But they still have the "if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down" rule to try and conserve.  There is tons of space for all us volunteers along with 2 of the midwifery students and 2 teachers and many others to live together comfortably.  And it has a great space for the classroom.

As we were getting ready for bed tonight we found a giant spider in our bathroom, it was the size of my palm, no kidding!  Talk about a relaxing thing right before climbing into our beds. I am glad we have mosquito nets on our beds, and not just because it will keep the mosquitoes out, but the giant spiders too!  Well off to bed, going on 3 hours sleep and some airplane naps, so I am ready.

Haiti Trip October 2012

While I was on my mission trip to Haiti last week I was keeping a journal by e-mailing the days events to a few friends and family.  I have been asked by a few people to share these posts and add pictures, so I am trying out this blog thing.