There’s no 911 in Haiti. When a mom or baby needs to be transported to the hospital the midwives have to have a vehicle that can provide that transportation. While doing the final editing of this Update word came from the birth center that they had gotten a call from a client early in the morning who was 32 weeks pregnant with twins that her water had broken. The midwives grabbed the emergency equipment and headed to her home. Upon arrival one of the babies had just been born and was in distress so they quickly headed to the hospital. On their way to the hospital the second baby was born also needing assistance. The first hospital that the team arrived at had no oxygen so they carried on to another hospital which thankfully was able to receive the babies. Because of Grace, these babies were transported to the hospital quickly. Birth generally does not require this kind of emergency intervention, but when it does Grace has to be able to transfer clients to the hospital from the Birth Center or as with this case from their home.
A reliable vehicle is absolutely necessary for daily operations of the birth center as well. The birth supplies have to be picked up, the groceries gathered in town, and women often need a ride home after the birth. Yes, Amazon and Uber have not made their way to the birth center just yet and our current truck doesn’t reliably go into reverse so we are needing to make raising funds to replace the truck a top priority. Please consider a donation, small or large, specifically to replace the truck.
