Everymothercounts.org/films/

“Every Mother Counts” discusses “Making Midwives”:  a recently founded program in Haiti that addresses maternal/baby mortality and discomfort by training students to become midwives. Each video focuses on one specific student or instructor, including Juslene, Genette, and Philomene, along with the founder Nadene. Each training midwife explains why they became part of the program, often placing emphasis on common life-threatening pregnancy complications in Haiti, such as Preeclampsia, that often have easily identifiable symptoms and are avoidable with medical access, advice, and education.

Many Haitians do not have access to medical facilities and lack basic resources that educate about healthy pregnancies. To address the lack of transportation and access to medical care, “Making Midwives” maintains a mobile clinic that travels to rural areas and provides sanitary products, nutrition advice, and medicine (to name a few) to pregnant women and their families. Through this mobile clinic, midwives often conduct examinations and offer medical insight. Generally, a significant role of midwives is to draw attention to healthy and unhealthy pregnancy symptoms and provide education about the birthing process – as it is often not possible to contact a doctor or research pregnancy symptoms at free will. Midwives play a vital role in advancing the health systems of developing countries and places where hospitals and medical/education resources are slim.

The contributions of midwives should be recognized. The social and health significance of education and accessibility to medical care is evident through the success of this program.