August 1
We had a meeting with the Matrons today who came together for their monthly reunion at the beginning of each month. They came together—both men and women— for this meeting. Matrons is the essential Haitian-Creole term for “Midwife.” These women and men were packed into this meeting room. At the beginning of each month, they are given additional supplied and 50 Gourdes (Haitian currency) for the needs. The 50 Gourdes and the additional supplies are also given by HAS. These Matrons or Matwons stay until the end of the meeting for the supplies. Some of which have been Matwons for decades. They seem to have part-time jobs on the side to supplement. As I gazed across the room, I saw young matwons who beamed with youth and old matwons who seemed so tired. The young matwons—as I later found out—delivered 9 children in the community. For her business was booming. Some delivered so many babies that they forgot their names of their clients and their children. As for the others, not so much. Maybe the busy matwons decided that it was a waste of their time. Regardless of this, I saw a new trend of fashion amongst the matwons: the church hat aesthetic. The women in the room had their church hats titled to the side, setting the trend for all of Haiti. They were a quite interesting group of individuals. I was most impressed by how passionate and humble they were when they received their items. Their meeting began with a prayer and a song of praise. These matwons meant business because they sat so seriously and listened intently! When asked to over their steps of how they deliver a baby: they stood up and went through step by step. When their peers heard something “out of the ordinary,” they stopped and said “Ki sa?” meaning “What?” Their peers were quality control. When the meeting coordinator pulled me talked to me to the side to ask them if their was anything that she need to mention in the meeting (that I felt should be mentioned) I told her my concerns. As my research comes to a close, I have been seeing a lot of neonatal cases with children who have infected umbilical cords, conjunctivitis, fever, and jaundice. All of which are preventable— some by the matwons and some not. Their area of concern should be the infected umbilical cords. There is a large percent of these deliveries that are being done at the homes of these mothers. There should be no reason or excuse as to why these umbilical cords are being infected. I could feel the room tense up when I told them that I have access to information about who are delivering these children. Part of my research is going to the root of the problem and addressing it. We need to be quality control for each other. We need to check the information of each other.
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