August, September, October
These are the months for baby storms.
What’s a baby storm, you ask?
At a birth center, it’s when a cluster of babies arrive fast and furious over a series of hours or day—
kind of like this baby storm in 2022.
But we’ve started to wonder if the terminology needs an update…
Because what do you call it when the baby storm doesn’t stop for an entire month!? Or when a baby storm coincides with an actual storm? Is it a Baby Storm-Storm?
If so, that’s what’s happening today at the Cap Haitien campus.
5 births so far, including two within two minutes of each other. And rain, so. much. rain.
September was the first time we reached more than 100 births in a single month between both of our Birth Centers.
The Cap Haitien team assisted 58 births and the Saint Raphael team supported 44.
Statistically, more births means more complications and more emergencies; more transfers to the hospital and more use of oxygen for babies need help to breath.
More births also means more postpartum visits.
So how are we holding up!?
Pretty well! We’ve been able to take all of this in stride thanks to the support of our regular and monthly supporters. We are so grateful.
You may remember that this time two years ago, we were really struggling. Many of the local hospitals were closed or operating at a limited capacity.
There was hardly any fuel in the country and we were having to take care of clients who would have given birth in a hospital (not a birth center), if these were “normal” circumstances.
There’s a video somewhere of us moving beds in the middle of the night, in a rain storm. There were 8 births on that November night in 2021.
It was our first true Baby Storm-Storm, but since then we have grown accustomed to shuffling things around when there are more families to accommodate.
“Jenn, I think you need to build more beds!” is a common refrain I hear this time of year.
Thanks to the new rooms on campus, a new midwife on the team, and the experience of many more Baby Storms under our belt, we are more prepared than ever for this season.
We’ve had a bed for everyone who needed one.
We asked a few of the nurses and midwives to share some of their favorite Baby Storm memories from the last few weeks.
Miss Nicole spoke about Linda, a woman who’s labor had to be induced at the Center due to very high-blood pressure. She had an easy delivery, Nicole remembers, but started to hemorrhage soon after her baby was born.
“We followed the protocol for hemorrhage. We did what we needed to stop the bleeding and stabilize Linda.”
“I spoke with her on the phone today.” Miss Nicole says with a big smile. “She is at home with the baby. She is doing well.”
Miss Fenelus, another nurse at the Cap Haitien campus, was quick to come up with her happiest memory from the past few weeks.
“There was a mother who came to a postpartum visit. She had her baby at home. He was 10 days old. He weighed less than 3 lbs.
“I taught her everything she could do to help her baby gain weight, like pumping her breastmilk to get a better flow. I saw her every 10 days over several visits.
“And then one day, she showed up and I didn’t even recognize the baby! I told her: ‘if you want people to know how far your baby has come you’re going to have to tell them how small he was. They aren’t going to believe you!’
“He was such a big baby now. I was really proud of her."
I’ve been intrigued by the word “safe” recently and struck by the fact that it keeps coming up over and over again when I describe all of Second Mile Haiti’s programs.
From the Malnutrition Treatment Centers and the psychology offices on our campus—to the women-only atmosphere of the Maternity Center on prenatal days and the well-lit streets of our community—we’ve been fighting for safe spaces since Day 1.
It’s thanks to supporters like you that we have these safe spaces to share—rain or shine.
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It is because of this team and these families that we are so eager for you to be part of our first 5K—which will support the Maternity Centers.
We are so proud of the care this team offers to women and families— and the lives they save each and every day.
Today is absolutely the last day to register for the In Her Shoes Global 5K for Second Mile Haiti.
If you haven’t yet, we’d love for you to sign up !
Thank you for creating safe spaces with us.
Until next time, love from Haiti 🇭🇹