This little life you see above will have six times less likely risk of dying in infancy if this little boy continues to receive his mother's first golden, then pearly white rich milk for his first 6 months. Exclusive breastfeeding.....this is our aim at Grace. Multiple studies worldwide have shown how significant exclusive breastfeeding is in reducing infant mortality within the first year, and Haiti is no exception. Worldwide "the death of 1.4 million children per year is attributed to suboptimum breastfeeding, the vast majority of these children die in the first 6 months of life (Black et al. 2008). Infants below 6 months of age are six times less likely to die from diarrhoea and from respiratory infections if exclusively fed breast milk; similar levels of protection are observed for those 6–11 months of age with continued breastfeeding in addition to complementary feeding". Formula prices are out of reach of the majority of Haitian families and breastfeeding is the only option. At Grace Community Birth Center, we have a hyper-focus on breastfeeding education to ensure the health, well-being and survival of our Grace-born babies. Traditional practices still include coffee-enemas, rice-water, sugar-water, etc, which have the potential of caring pathogens into a delicate baby's digestive system unprepared to deal with these novel bacteria and viruses. (WHO Collaborative Study Team on the Role of Breastfeeding on the Prevention of Infant Mortality2000-(https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6860539/). (fb)

The infant mortality rate in Haiti is 40 per 1,000 live births. This means that for every 1,000 infants born, 40 will die before reaching their first birthday, according to the World Bank, this contrasts USA rates of 6 per 1,000. This is why we celebrate one-year visits from babies that delivered at Grace! This little girl is thriving. Her hair is nice and dark and shiny. Her cheeks are chubby and her skin is supple. She's met all her milestones. Her mom stopped by the clinic to get her cervical cancer screening results and wanted to say thank you again so much for what we provide at Grace! (fb)