Hey Friends, it’s nice to be back with you.
This week, we have someone we’d like you to meet: a spunky, healthy, pre-schooler named Christy!
Christy and her mother Wislande spent time at both our maternity center and nutrition center in 2019.
Initially, Wislande received prenatal care at Second Mile Haiti, but when she went into labor at 33 weeks, she was referred to a local hospital to be monitored during her early delivery.
Wislande and newborn Christy were hospitalized for thirteen days before returning to our Cap Haitien Maternity Center where our Midwives taught her the importance of Kangaroo Care for a premature baby and worked with the duo around the clock.
Once their postpartum needs were met, the pair jumped over to our nutrition center where they stayed with us for six weeks.
Christy grew from 1.35 kg to 2.98 kg.
But that’s not the best part.
From there, we got to watch Christy grow under her mother’s doting care as the pair returned to Second Mile Haiti for follow-up visits a few times each year.
Their most recent visit? Today!
Today, Christy is a bright-eyed, curious, 4-year-old with no shortage of personality!
Wislande and Christy’s story can’t help but remind us of a family that we worked with in 2015, a mother named Beigemanie and her daughter named Beige-landine.
Both youthful mothers went into labor prematurely with their first child and both mothers ended up at Second Mile Haiti for malnutrition treatment.
The difference?
Before Second Mile was available, an orphanage seemed like the only way for some families to keep their children alive.
In 2015, Beigemanie and her 30-day-old infant were referred to Second Mile by an orphanage that Beigemanie had found herself at as a last effort to save her daughter. Her baby weighed only 1.4 kg (3lbs), and had already spent her first month of life in the NICU, which drained the family of finances.
In 2019, Wislande and her family got to skip the orphanage trauma completely; she didn’t even have to consider it. She was already being monitored by our prenatal specialists when we determined that she would need to be transferred to the hospital because the baby was coming early.
Wislande knew that she had somewhere to go after the hospital that would help her take care of her small baby. She never had to contemplate surrendering her daughter.
We started offering Prenatal Care at our first Maternity Center in 2018 to give mothers the kind of prenatal & postpartum support that would give infants and young families a strong start.
We also hoped to replace orphanages as a place families felt compelled to turn to when their babies were unwell.
We are happy to report that both the Second Mile Haiti Maternity Center and Nutrition Centers are serving their purpose.
