Hospital Deportations Force Risky Home Births for Haitian Women

Many Haitian women in the Dominican Republic face dangerous childbirth conditions due to fear of deportation. These women often resort to giving birth in unsupervised environments after immigration authorities began detaining migrants at hospitals.

Katty Joseph, a 20-year-old Haitian woman, describes her concern about seeking medical care in public hospitals without legal documents. The risk she faces is deportation, a threat that looms over migrants, including mothers and their newborns.

For over a year, Dominican immigration agents have implemented measures that largely impact Haitians escaping severe humanitarian crises in their homeland. Ms. Joseph moved to the Dominican Republic a year ago, ending up in the backroom of a car repair shop where she gave birth.

Ms. Joseph recounts her experience of laboring on a blanket on the grease-stained floor, enduring the intense Caribbean heat, with only a friend present to assist. She cut the umbilical cord herself with a razor. Tragically, her baby did not survive past the first day.

“It was a very difficult moment,” Ms. Joseph expressed in Creole, struggling to find words for her profound loss.

The reality for many Haitian women like Ms. Joseph involves navigating birth under precarious conditions, lacking both medical support and legal protection.