Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Caring for Premature infants & Critically Ill Newborns

At Children’s Health Ministries, we care for premature, low birth weight, and critically ill newborns in our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Located in a remodeled shipping container in our clinic yard, the NICU is sealed off from dust and germs to provide the most hygienic environment possible for the most fragile babies.

Only 1 in 10 babies in the poorest areas of Haiti (like Carrefour) are delivered by a skilled birthing attendant, and most are delivered at home. Due to this, many babies experience birth trauma and oxygen deprivation at birth. Little to no prenatal care and maternal malnutrition contribute to other frequent complications, including a high maternal-fetal infection rate and infants born at low birth weight (below 2.5 kg or 5.5 pounds).

Our patients are not just babies born at home, however; we frequently receive neonatal referrals from an increasing number of hospitals in Carrefour and beyond, usually due to a lack of adequate supplies and medical staff.

Baby Taïna

At birth (above, left): 8 weeks premature,
2 pounds 5 ounces
At NICU discharge (above, right): 1 month old,
3 pounds 9 ounces

The Need for Newborn Care

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Haiti’s public hospitals – those funded by the government – are incredibly under staffed and under resourced. Patients may arrive at a hospital seeking emergency services to be told “sorry, there’s no doctor today” or to find the entire hospital is out on strike. Patients must also pay for services ahead of being treated. This includes laboratory tests, x-rays, and purchasing necessary supplies (gloves, IV fluids, needles, etc) from pharmacies inside the hospital or in the street.

For families in our community earning $1-2 per day, a hospitalization for a newborn can cost 1.5-2 times their annual income. Coming up with this kind of money at the moment of crisis is almost impossible, and for this reason many people do not seek help because they know they won’t be able to afford it anyway.

It is no surprise, then, given the lack of functioning hospitals, extreme poverty, poor nutrition, and lack of proper sanitation, that the infant mortality rate is so incredibly high in Haiti. The most common causes of infant death are:

complications of premature birth
maternal-fetal infection
birth trauma / oxygen deprivation
respiratory complications like pneumonia

So much of this death is PREVENTABLE! And this is our goal: by providing free, high-quality care for premature infants and critically ill full-term newborns we can avoid much of this needless death and give these babies the chance to thrive.

Infant Mortality in Haiti

of premature and ill newborns are without access to a NICU bed

of newborns do not see a medical professional in the first week of life

of newborn deaths occur during the first week of life

of newborn deaths are due to infection and complications of birth trauma

of newborn deaths are related to premature birth

Partner with us today to care for Haiti's most fragile babies!

Make a one-time or recurring contribution towards the life-saving work in our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and ensure these tiny babies can thrive!

Click here to donate!

Tequierline's Story

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What would you do if your sick newborn’s hospital ran out of life-saving oxygen and the medical staff walked off the job in protest, leaving no one to care for your baby?

This is just what happened to Kettie and her baby Tequierline just one day after Baby T was born at the government-run maternity hospital in Carrefour. Tequierline was born in the middle of 10 days of violent anti-government protests that took place throughout Haiti in February 2019. Burning roadblocks, shootings, and angry mobs all over the capital city of Port au Prince made oxygen delivery to the maternity hospital impossible and in protest of poor working conditions and after not being paid for over a month, the hospital medical staff refused to continue to work.

When the maternity hospital shut down and her baby lay without oxygen and medical care, Kettie walked over a mile at 9:30 pm through dark and dangerous streets where people had been rioting only hours before to ask if we would help her baby.

When Baby T and her mama arrived that evening our incredible nurses immediately welcomed them and got to work. Tequierline was having seizures and had signs of a serious neurological infection. Our nurses and pediatrician worked into the night getting Baby T stabilized and comfortable and setting up a care plan to get her healthy. Had Kettie not brought Baby T to us that evening it is almost certain she would have died.

At Children’s Health Ministries we are proud to be a refuge for sick babies and their mamas, providing high quality and compassionate medical care in a county where so many die without access to basic health services.

Under the skilled care of our medical team and loving touch of her mama, Baby Tequierline healed and began to thrive. She is pictured here at three months old, and she shows no neurological deficits from her brush with death. She is wonderfully chubby and healthy due to being exclusively breastfed!

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Take a Peek inside the NICU!

Click on the pictures for a closer look!