Maternity Center Stats – 2018

by Tara Livesay – Certified Professional Midwife, Director – Heartline Maternity Center

Let’s look back on 2018 at the Heartline Maternity Center.

The tendency in doing any work is to look at the outcomes from a purely statistical approach.

How many? What categories? What cost per person? Was it “effective”?

At the Heartline Maternity Center we transparently report statistics and share our outcomes. Please always feel free to ask questions! Click here to email Tara a question.

We also believe that some of the best things that happen, cannot and do not show up in a statistics report.

These numbers will never tell you how many hours were spent massaging backs, how many tears were shed over abuse, loss, or betrayal, or how many words of encouragement and prayers were offered.

The day to day work is incredibly relational. Because of the environment created by decades of material poverty combined with corrupt governments, the relational needs are intense. They are also vital to the work of Midwifery. It is not possible to work with a woman in childbearing years (in Haiti) that has not had trauma.  That person does not exist here.

To know that the mother in labor has lost one baby to what she believes was a curse and another to entrapment of the head during a breech delivery because of inadequate care – is to approach prenatal care and the birth with a unique empathy and tenderness that cannot be quantified with statistics.

The statistics do tell a story, they just don’t tell the whole story.

Hopefully we have done a decent job of sharing a few of the stories this last year. It is with the weight of responsibility that we share anything. Our hope and prayer is that we honor the women we work with. Telling their stories is something we do with caution and intentional forethought and discussion.

The stats below will possibly mean more to people that work in the area of Maternal Health, and especially to those that work within a developing world setting. We are so pleased with some of these findings and excited to continue gathering data in the years to come.

The 2018 Heartline Maternity Center Stats

118 Babies were born to moms in the Heartline Prenatal Program in 2018 – 53 boys and 65 girls

116 babies lived. 1 baby died due to prematurity at a hospital. 1 baby died to to a cord prolapse at the hospital. (We are working on meeting with that hospital).

0 Maternal deaths

0 Intrauterine fetal deaths (baby that dies between 20 weeks gestation and full term)

Pre-eclampsia – In 2015, we had a 26% preeclampsia rate. Research suggests that calcium and aspirin throughout pregnancy can help reduce the occurrence of preeclampsia. So in 2016, we began giving daily calcium and aspirin to all women who are pregnant for the first time and women considered high-risk for preeclampsia. We needed to give it time in order to report the findings, but we now have three-year stats to compare and see how well it is working! The 3 year preeclampsia rate (for 2016, 2017, 2018) at the MC has been reduced to 10.3%.

Transfer rate for the past three years (mothers transferred to another hospital due to complication) is 25.7%

C-Section rate is 13.2% (over the past three years)

Postpartum hemorrhage rate for 2018 – 2.5% (due mainly to active management of the third stage)

3.3% preterm labor – prior to 37 weeks (over the past three years)

In 2018, we had two incidence of shoulder dystocia with resuscitation. The more difficult shoulder dystocia was 5 minutes with a 4.5 minute resuscitation.

2.5% miscarriage rate in 2018

First time moms made up 52.5.% of our clients

1,725 Prenatal Visits in 2018

Oldest mom to Deliver in 2018 – 42 years old

Youngest mom to deliver in 2018 – 15 years old

10 people lost their spot in the program due to poor attendance. Attendance is key for us. We don’t allow anyone in the Prenatal Program to miss a Thursday without contacting us first and having their consult rescheduled. When there is “buy-in,” the outcomes are so much better. Coming weekly creates buy-in!

2 babies were born at home and 1 baby was born in the street in front of the Maternity Center (because babies came faster than moms could get to the MC)

830 Women received Family Planning (mostly Depo Provera) in 2018

Average woman begins the Prenatal Program at 9 weeks gestation

Biggest success story of the year, baby Ruth (born at 32 weeks) is thriving in the loving care of her mama, Naomi!

Biggest challenge of the year, baby Wisler born at term in November with Pierre Robin syndrome and other special needs.

85% of the babies born at the Heartline Maternity Center in 2018 were delivered by Haitian Midwives!

We have increased the number of women we serve at the MC by 31% over the last two years – we will hold at these numbers for 2019.

We love what we do at the Heartline Maternity Center and we hope to share our model with anyone that wants to copy it. Our next Starting Place class will likely be held in summer of 2019. Details to come.

Thank you for celebrating with us and mourning with us. We are incredibly grateful for your investment and prayers.