HAITI/ MATERNITY

The UN says that 7,000 women are due to give birth this month as medical teams continue to work around the clock in birthing tents to deliver Haiti's newborns. MINUSTAH

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:25
• Production Date: 1 February 2010
• Asset Language: Original
• Subject Topical: POPULATION; HEALTH SERVICES; DISEASE PREVENTION; DISEASE CONTROL; HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE
• Geographic Subject: HAITI; UNITED NATIONS STABILIZATION MISSION IN HAITI - MINUSTAH
• MAMS Id: U100201c

Description

STORY: HAITI / MATERNITY
TRT: 2:25
SOURCE: MINUSTAH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: FRENCH / CREOLE / NATS

DATELINE: 1 FEBRUARY 2010, PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI

Shotlist

1. Med shot, maternity ward sign written on cardboard in makeshift clinic
2. Wide shot, clinic orderly wheels by a woman who recently gave birth
3. Close up, newborn baby's face pan to nurse taking the baby into the maternity tent
4. Med shot, woman and new born baby on a cot
5. Med shot, baby's face
6. Med shot, mother with her baby
7. Close up, baby's face
8. Med shot, sign for the WHO emergency response unit
9. SOUNDBITE (French) Dr. Evelyine Ancion Degraff, World Health Organization (WHO):
"Breastfeeding is the most important thing for the newborn in this situation. Newborns have very weak immune systems. It hasn't yet developed. So newborns have a difficult time defending themselves against pathogens. But breast-milk can provide all the antibodies the baby needs to protect itself from disease."
10. Med shot, a tray of vaccine bottles
11. Close up, vaccine bottles
12. Med shot, a father vaccinates his baby with drops from a dropper syringe
13: Med shot, a baby gets vaccinated through drops
14. Med shot, a family surrounding a mom and a newborn
15. Med shot, a mother and her newborn
16. Close up, newborn's face
17. SOUNDBITE (French) Sejouste Walkin, Father:
"Thank God we have this international aid to help us with this birth. For the moment at least, we are still alive, but who knows about tomorrow."
18. Wide shot, tent camp in Port-au-Prince
19. Wide shot, interior of a family tent
20. Med shot, woman with her baby
21. Close up, unknown infection on the baby's back
22. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Christianne Raphael, Mother:
"It is really starting to stink around here, there are many flies and we get sick. People are going to the bathroom right on the ground. So it is hard for us to even breathe."
23. Med shot, baby under a mosquito protector
24. Close up, father's face
25. Wide shot, father and baby in their tent
26. Wide shot, exterior of the tent

Storyline

The United Nations (UN) said about 7,000 women are due to give birth this month as medical teams continue to work around the clock in birthing tents to deliver Haiti’s newborns.

According to UNICEF, there are currently 120,000 pregnant women in Haiti, more than half are in earthquake-affected areas. It is estimated that 15 percent of the 63,000 pregnant women in affected areas are likely to have potentially life-threatening complications.
Post natal-care is also proving to be a challenge in a country where the medical infrastructure has been destroyed leaving only a few hospitals functional and many medical personnel themselves dead or injured.

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) doctors say that only breastfeeding can boost the baby’s immune system and improve its chances of survival in situations like Haiti.

SOUNDBITE (French) Dr. Evelyine Ancion Degraff, World Health Organization:
"Breastfeeding is the most important thing for the newborn in this situation. Newborns have very weak immune systems. It hasn't yet developed. So newborns have a difficult time defending themselves against pathogens. But breast-milk can provide all the antibodies the baby needs to protect itself from disease."

But UNICEF has said that some new Haitian mothers who have not felt good both physically and mentally are concerned about breastfeeding their newborns out of fear of passing on their “bad health.”
WHO is also working to vaccinate mothers and newborns against prevalent diseases such as neonatal tetanus.
For the 7,000 Haitian women who will give birth in the next month, the risks of miscarriages and other complications appear great. The UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) predicts there will be at least 1,000 miscarriages this month.

The agency started distributing emergency reproductive health kits to pregnant women which contain plastic sheets, sterile blades to cut the umbilical cord and blankets for the newborn.
More advanced kits containing emergency Caesarean section equipment were distributed to birthing tents at field hospitals.
SOUNDBITE (French) Sejouste Walkin, Father:
"Thank god we have this international aid to help us with this birth. For the moment at least, we are still alive, but who knows about tomorrow."
Unsanitary conditions in these make-shift “tent cities” where the majority of displaced Haitians now live only make the situation worse.
SOUNDBITE (Creole) Christianne Raphael, Mother:
"It is really starting to stink around here, there are many flies and we get sick. People are going to the bathroom right on the ground. So it is hard for us to even breathe."
Haitian women were also given “dignity kits” containing sanitary towels, hygiene materials and underwear.
According to UNICEF, Haiti had the highest rates of infant (under-five) and maternal mortality rate in the western hemisphere even before the earthquake. The maternal mortality rate stood at 670 deaths every 100,000 pregnant women.