Maternal Healthcare

Giving birth in Haiti is extremely dangerous for most women and girls. Haiti tragically has some of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world.

At Heartline, we believe birth is a human rights issue.

The Heartline Maternity Center combats the dismal maternal health reality in Haiti through excellent medical care, health education, nutrition, and compassionate support that effectively reduces the high incidence of maternal and infant mortality and prevents children from becoming orphans.

The Heartline Maternity Center provides expectant mothers in Haiti with a full prenatal program, labor and delivery services with certified midwives and nurses, and a six month postpartum program of weekly medical care, child development education, and breastfeeding support.

We believe God's dream for humanity includes the women and children of Haiti and the world ~ Theology of Care

Medical clinics open to the wider community are also held each week to provide pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, and free birth control to promote healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy as a proven strategy to reduce maternal mortality and improve child survival rates.

When women and girls enter the Heartline Maternity Center doors, they find love, joy and celebration, compassionate relationships, empowering education, excellent maternal care, and respect.

Investing in Maternal Health

Philosophy of Care - The 7 E’s

Empathy

As one small outpost of health and wholeness in the worldwide maternal health crisis, we choose empathy, and we practice love. We are committed to excellence, to integrity, to thorough training, to steady competence. But even our excellence of care, our integrity, our training, our competence must be grounded in a philosophy of love. Maternal health has for too long been sidelined and de-emphasized in the world: We believe women deserve not only competent and thorough care but they also deserve dignity, respect, and to feel loved in their most vulnerable moments.

Engagement

Engagement ensures continuity of care. This allows us to develop a relationship with clients and to provide safe, personalized care.

Expectations

We expect clients to be active participants in their care as they prepare for birth and postpartum. We have full confidence in women and we believe that this expectation empowers women as they become strong, capable, and confident mothers.

Education

We seek to provide education and care for clients. Through health education and informed care, we provide education to women about their bodies, their babies, and their choices. We believe education can change the world - and that every women deserves access to education.

Excellence

When we think about those we love being in need of medical care, it can cause a bit of anxiety. Who do we trust with our lives and our care? Our maternal health care model strives for excellence.

Empowerment

We honor clients as the primary decision maker even as we promote shared responsibility with the midwives. We place the client’s desires and requests at the center of the process. We provide relevant and vital information throughout pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.

Environment

We strive for a safe birth center or home birth environment where a woman can work with her body in strength and dignity for an empowered birth. We aim for birth to proceed without intervention but we are trained and prepared to provide a higher level of care when necessary. All throughout pregnancy, each woman is supported with encouragement, kindness and quality care.

The Starting Place

We envision a world where all women are loved and supported with quality care during pregnancy, childbirth, and early motherhood regardless of their wealth or privilege. We envision a world where all moms and their babies flourish together for the long haul. We envision a world where moms and their children are empowered to change not only their own story but the stories of their communities for good.

The Starting Place Birth Center, Manual, and Class are built on the model of the Heartline Maternity Center and now available as a resource and offering services to the women of Bell County, TX.

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