Experiences of pregnancy complications: Voices from central Haiti

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience of pregnancy/birth complications in central Haiti from the perspectives of skilled birth attendants (saj fanm), traditional birth attendants (matwons), and postpartum mothers. Hermeneutic phenomenology guided the study. With the assistance of a Creole-English translator, four saj fanm, ten matwons, and seven postpartum mothers were interviewed. Their stories explain barriers and challenges to safe motherhood—serious limitations in transportation, staffing, and lack of the most basic of material resources, but also illustrate tremendous resiliency, spirituality, power of partnerships, and commonsense solutions to problems impacting maternal/newborn health in central Haiti. Haiti has one the world's highest maternal and neonatal mortality, and findings of this study provide perspective of this reality from those most affected by it—Haitian mothers and front-line maternity workers.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the many contributions of the administration and staff of the Midwives for Haiti organization in both Richmond, Virginia and in Hinche, Haiti for providing inspiration for and practical assistance with this study.