Beaumont, a commune in Haiti in the Grand'Anse department in the Corail district, generally has many cases of early pregnancy, according to members of its population.

Kétia Lizaire, midwife at the St Agnès Beaumont maternity hospital, confirms that this health center receives an average of 5 to 10 cases of adolescent girls every month.

Childbirth of a woman teenager by episiotomy

Joséphina was 18 when she arrived pregnant, from a town far from Beaumont, at the health center in February 2020. She regularly follows her prenatal consultations and gives birth by episiotomy.

“The baby's weight was too big for the passing sector,” explains Joséphina. The midwife must have given birth with scissors, she adds.

An episiotomy is a surgical act of opening the perineum at the time of childbirth in order to let the child pass. The ideal purpose of this incision is to sever the levator ani muscle.

During her hospitalization, Joséphina attended several awareness sessions on sexual and reproductive health. She adopted jadelle implants (7 years) as a long-lasting contraceptive method. She is currently living on good terms with her 13 months old daughter.

High-risk pregnancies referred

"We don't usually deliver teenage girls under 16, because they are risky pregnancies," said the head of the maternity ward. We preferably refer them to a community hospital for their care, adds Miss Lizaire.

The St Agnès Beaumont health center does not have the capacity to cope with certain complications such as cephalo-pelvic disproportion, fetal suffering and laceration. Overall, however, the center is able to respond to basic emergency neonatal care. From March to October 2020, the center carried out 57 antenatal consultations for adolescents aged 14 to 19.

Importance of the SSIAF project

It is assisted in this task by SSIAF, a joint United Nations project in Haiti implemented by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, UNICEF, PAHO / WHO and UNAIDS, of in concert with the Government, and funded by Canada, in response to Hurricane Matthew in October 2016 in the departments of Sud and Grand'Anse.

1,625 victims of physical and sexual violence were cared for in institutions supported by the SSIAF project in 2020. The SSIAF project has supported 21,500 institutional deliveries since the project began.

As part of this project, the St Agnès Beaumont health center receives support in terms of medical equipment, salaries, fuel and training in reproductive health. Material support includes delivery tables, screens, garbage cans and medicines.

When I participate in training sessions, I make them follow with feedback days for the rest of the staff, specifies the midwife of the St Agnès Beaumont maternity hospital. It helps us strengthen ourselves, she says.

The St Agnès Beaumont health center covers 21 expected pregnancies per month in its served population of 8,530 inhabitants. In addition to this center with beds, the town of Beaumont contains 4 dispensaries.

Story and photo : Vario Sérant