As part of support for the national policy of reduction of the maternal lethality, the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA - Haiti), announces that the fourth "Smile Clinic" intended to provide all the services of reproductive health, [Basic Emergency neonatal care (SONUB)], is under construction and will open by February-March 2012.

Dr. Michael Brun announced that the first 3 clinics are located in the departments of the West, Artibonite and South-East and the choice of sites, to implement these SONUB respects the health mapping of the Haitian Ministry of Public Health.

"The idea is to enable people living in remote areas to have access to basic services such as prevention, prenatal consultations, diagnosis, medical support, delivery, distribution of medications, health of mother and child (food hygiene specifically)," stresses for her part Stéphanie Orsucci, midwife of program United Nations Volunteers (UNV). "They will participate in the organization of clinics, to the inventories, to the management and administration. They will also have an important social role, keeping in touch with the mothers and the community."

In Haiti, only 25% of deliveries take place in institutional environment and maternal fatality rate is 630 per 100,000 live births, the highest in the Americas. However, the Haitian experience has shown that the impact in terms of increase in births without a maternal death in the institutions can be seen in the sites where midwives are deployed. It was on the basis of the "success story" of the maternity of Petite Rivière (Charles Colimon Medical Center) at the inter-agency project [UNICEF, UNOPS, UNV and WHO / PAHO] "Smile Clinics" (Cliniques Sourire), as developed following the January 12, 2010, explains the senior technical advisor in family health of the UNFPA Haiti, Agnès Jacob.

Until all the Smile Clinics planned under this project are functional, the midwives of UNV working in public maternity hospitals that already existed and where will be established the SONUB, will also provide the services to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child and screening for the cancer of the cervix. The latter pathology, is the third leading cause of death of women in Haiti, while a low-cost strategy, namely the visual screening method, has proved its worth throughout the world.

HL/ HaitiLibre