[Updated] Photographer Captures the Realities of Maternal Health in Haiti

B.D. Colen, a documentary photographer, is currently in Haiti with our partner Midwives for Haiti capturing the realities of maternal health for many Haitian women who live in the country’s poor Central Plateau. The mothers who receive care from Midwives for Haiti are the lucky ones. They have access to prenatal care at mobile clinics in the region as well as in far-off villages with traditional birth attendants or matrones as they are called in Creole. Expectant mothers are also afforded quality labor and delivery as well as postnatal care in the hospital. Midwives for Haiti also teaches matrones how to perform safe, clean births for women who object to delivering in the hospital or for those who want to deliver in the hospital but it’s too far and they cannot afford transport.

As you may recall, I spent a few days in Hinche, Haiti and visited L’Hôpital Sainte-Thérèse earlier this year with Midwives for Haiti. There, I spent time with the visiting certified nurse midwives as they did rounds. Read my piece: Maternity Ward Observations: Midwifery Care in a Haitian Hospital.

Colen is documenting Midwives for Haiti’s work at their mobile clinic as well as at L’Hôpital Sainte-Thérèse. He has also visited mothers’ home.

Below are photos he has posted this week. Follow him @TheBDColen.

8/ 24/ 15: Updated to include additional posted photos from B.D. Colen.

https://twitter.com/TheBDColen/status/635802050568261632

https://twitter.com/TheBDColen/status/635801179499425792

https://twitter.com/TheBDColen/status/635652760113967104

https://twitter.com/TheBDColen/status/635459444143357952

https://twitter.com/TheBDColen/status/635201745388351488

https://twitter.com/TheBDColen/status/635129724747038720

https://twitter.com/TheBDColen/status/634478875343458304

End of update.

https://twitter.com/TheBDColen/status/633058864292716544

https://twitter.com/TheBDColen/status/633060685656670208

3 responses to “[Updated] Photographer Captures the Realities of Maternal Health in Haiti”

Bob Adler

August 19, 2015 at 4:19 pm

Pulitzer Prize material!!

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jpmatx

August 19, 2015 at 11:29 pm

absolutely stunning!

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Lindsey Petramale

September 4, 2015 at 4:49 am

Sontag also describes the inability of a photograph to capture enough information about its subject to be considered a representation of reality. She states, “the camera’s rendering of reality must always hide more than it discloses…only what which narrates can make us understand”.

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