Exploring the use of labor and delivery services by women of Haitian nationality in a Dominican Republic border town
International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care
ISSN: 1747-9894
Article publication date: 12 September 2017
Issue publication date: 21 September 2017
Abstract
Purpose
Women of Haitian nationality comprise a sizeable proportion of all women seeking labor and delivery services in a public hospital in Dominican Republic (DR), along the central border of Haiti. The purpose of this paper is to better understand and address the needs of Haitian women receiving labor and delivery services in this border region.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a mixed-methods study to identify personal motivations, demographic characteristics, and migration history of women seeking labor and delivery services at a public hospital.
Findings
The majority of women (83 percent) were born in Haiti but spoke Spanish (74 percent) and were long-term residents of the DR (mean 7.8 years). While many women reported they felt they had a positive experience delivering at the public hospital, some described feeling unwelcome or resented.
Research limitations/implications
The study sample was small and from one hospital. Future studies could explore the differences in experiences among Haitian women who are long-term residents of the DR and those whose presence is more transient.
Practical implications
Women residing on both sides of the border would likely benefit from coordinated efforts by the Haitian and DR Ministries of Health to strengthen referral services to and from either country.
Social implications
Hospital staff and services in the DR should consider the unique needs of this population, which makes critical contributions to workforce and culture in the DR.
Originality/value
This study is the first to assess labor and delivery service seeking practices and experiences within this population.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Adrianne Katrina Nelson and Marguerite Fenwood are contributed equally.
This study was completed with the collaboration of the Socios En Salud/Partners In Health team. The authors thank Michaelle Jeanty and Widline Louis-Juste for their contribution to data collection, and Partners In Health Volunteers Emmanual Midi and Lamos Paul for transcription. The authors acknowledge and thank Dr Jose Joaquin Familia and the Hospital Rosa Duarte staff for their support of this project. The authors thank Carly Rodriguez and Louise Ivers for their comments on an earlier version of this manuscript and Sidney Atwood for programming support. This study did not receive any funding. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study was approved by the director of HRD and by the local bioethics board, Consejo Nacional de Bioética en Salud, CONABIOS, located in Santo Domingo, DR. This paper does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. Oral informed consent was obtained from all individual participants in the study.
Citation
Nelson, A.K., Fenwood, M., Burks, C., Widner, A., Bah, A.B., Ternier, R. and F. Franke, M. (2017), "Exploring the use of labor and delivery services by women of Haitian nationality in a Dominican Republic border town", International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 302-308. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMHSC-03-2016-0015
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited