New Women’s Unit at Fort St. Michel to be Staffed by Konbit Sante-Sponsored OB/GYN
The Fort St. Michel clinic, serving an impoverished neighborhood of about 40,000, has added an obstetrics unit and will do routine deliveries while referring difficult cases to the Justinian Hospital. According to Dr. Eva
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Lathrop, head of Konbit Sante’s women’s health team, most women in the clinic’s catchment area currently deliver at home or in the home of a lay midwife. Ideally the opening of the Fort St. Michel obstetrical service will
decrease the barriers many of these women face to having a trained attendant at delivery, and ultimately decrease the maternal morbidity and mortality rates associated with delays in receiving care. The maternal mortality ratio in Haiti is now 680/100,000 births – the highest in the Western Hemisphere and on par with many sub-Saharan African countries - in stark contrast to Cuba’s 33/100,000 and the Dominican Republic’s 150/100,000 and our 7/100,000 in the U.S.
We are happy to announce that Dr. Youseline Telemaque, with whom we have worked for two years while she completed her residency at Justinian Hospital, will provide invaluable assistance to this unit. Her responsibilities will include providing women’s health services at Fort St. Michel, establishing strong referral links between the clinic and the hospital for high-risk pregnancies, training community clinicians, and initiating community outreach. Dr. Telemaque is planning to have Justinian Hospital residents complete rotations at Fort St. Michel to give their training a community/public health perspective. This position is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID/MSH/SDSH PROJECT).
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Dr. Telemaque completed her medical school at Université Quisqueya in Port-au-Prince, spent her social service year at Hôpital Sainte-Therese in Hinche, and worked at Centre Medical Beraca in Port-de-Paix before joining Konbit Sante. While doing her residency at the JUH, Dr. Telemaque played an instrumental role in the needs assessment on women’s health issues conducted by Konbit Sante in 2006, which was foundational to many of our current efforts related to women’s health. According to Dr. Lathrop, “Dr. Telemaque is a true educator and leader, and her addition to the Konbit Sante and Fort St. Michel staff will have tremendous impact on the way women’s health and women’s lives are viewed, valued, and cared for in the Cap-Haitien community.” Even before Dr. Telemaque began her new position, several hundred women had signed up for prenatal services.