At a glance: GlobeMed at Truman State works with Maison de Naissance, a birthing home in Haiti, to improve MN’s ability to measure and evaluate health outcomes and impact of services and programs. Through data analysis, the installation of a satellite dish, and shor-term on-site experiences, students at Truman State are helping MN make sure that women can have safe pregnancies and deliveries and the information they need for healthy motherhood.

Key fact: Haiti has the highest maternal mortality in the western hemisphere: 523/100,000 live births. The US maternal mortality rate is 17/100,000 live births.

Partner: Maison de Naissance’s mission, as a maternity center designed like a birthing home, is to provide preferential care for mothers and babies in extreme poverty in Haiti. The services of a modern maternity center are offered in the hospitality of a safe, culturally appropriate, and friendly home – “a house of birth” - Maison de Naissance. In addition, MN leads many community-based programs including deworming, Vitamin A distribution, and health education.

Health Education: Patients who come to MN for services are given information on sexually transmitted diseases, contraception, and the importance of prenatal care.  New mothers participate in “Club Maman” where they get together with other new mothers in the area and staff members to discuss infant nutrition, breast-feeding techniques and the importance of childhood vaccinations. The Sante Communitaire teams visit home to home taking health histories and educating the population on the benefits of clean water, malaria prevention, and answering any questions they may have about how MN can help them and their community.

Locally driven: The clinic has a fully operational Haitian staff made up of midwives, nurses, administrators, groundskeepers, maintenance workers and drivers who are all hired and paid by Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Foundation. All services are free, because even the least financial expectation could be a deterrent to preventative care and early treatment of problems.

Maison de Naissance (MN) was established in October of 2004 and is sponsored by the Healthy Mothers - Healthy Babies Foundation (HM-HB), a non-profit based out of Kansas City, Missouri. HM-HB provides financial, administrative, and program support for Maison de Naissance and its programs in Haiti.

GlobeMed's Current Impact: Helping women by increasing information transfer and communication

The current project of the Truman State/MN Partnership is the funding and installation of a satellite dish for the clinic's new community development center. GlobeMed will be participating in communication with the center to help with computer problems as well as data entry and analysis from the United States.

Both GlobeMed at Truman State and Dr. Shaffer, the Medical Director for MN, selected the satellite as the primary current project because it will greatly enhance MN as they continue to expand and scale their community-based model with a larger center in the coming year.

The satellite will serve to connect data collected on site to an online medical records database. GlobeMed will be able to access these online records system for analysis purposes which will assist MN in their efforts to measure health data and impact of programs. Data collected will include patient history, neo-natal history, and community educational information. Members of GlobeMed at Truman State plan to visit Haiti early in the summer of 2008 to work with the clinic to further data and measurement collection.

History: GlobeMed’s partnership with Maison de Naissance began when Paul Rotert, founder of the Truman State chapter, worked with Dr. Shaffer and MN in Haiti in the summer of 2006. Since then, a relationship has grown into a belief that students at Truman can have an important and measurable impact in their work with mothers in rural Haiti.
 
For more info on GlobeMed's work in Haiti:

Chris Dove
Director of Health Partnerships
chrisevod@yahoo.com
Paul Rotert
Founder of GlobeMed at Truman State and former President
pbr512@truman.edu