🎉Thank you!! We're so grateful for your support! 🎉

The Women’s Health Initiative focuses on breastfeeding education, providing prenatal vitamins, and infant vitamin drops to the most vulnerable Haitians: pregnant women and infants.

58% of Haitian women give birth without a skilled birth attendant present – and once a child is born, they have a 10.8x higher chance of dying before the age of 5 in Haiti than in the U.S.

The power of breastfeeding education:

Breastmilk has been proven, over decades of research, to be unarguably the best nutrition for babies with its nearly perfect mix of easily digested vitamins, protein and fat. In addition, new research in July 2017 JAMA Pediatrics has shown that beneficial bacteria from the mother colonize in the baby’s gut, helping the infant establish a healthy microbiome-bacteria in the intestine that help fight disease throughout life.
Breast milk is of excellent quality even if a mother is sick or malnourished. Quantity is also adequate, except in rare cases of terminal disease or very severe malnutrition.
Nearly 2 out of every 3 infants are not exclusively breastfeed for the recommended 6 months- a rate that has not improved in 2 decades. Globally, 3 in 5 babies are not breastfed in the first hour of life.

How the program works:

Two nurse educators are present at the FOTCOH clinic to provide breastfeeding education and individual support to all prenatal mothers and caregivers of children birth to 3 years of age utilizing the curriculum and videos developed by Global Health Media.

How you can help:

We're passionate about supporting mothers and infants by providing high quality education, vitamins and support through their pregnancy and beyond. Many of our patients are young mothers who otherwise would not have access to this critical support from our nurses and support staff.

Making a gift to support the Women's Health Initiative allows FOTCOH to continue to grow this program and support infants and caregivers from the start. Thank you!

A Message from our Executive Director, Nathan Ruby:

About FOTCOH

For nearly 30 years, Friends of the Children of Haiti (FOTCOH, pronounced “fot-co”) has provided healthcare and hope to the people of Haiti. FOTCOH provides year-round medical services as well as community education and hygiene programs in Cyvadier, Haiti. FOTCOH’s staff and devoted volunteers treat medical conditions including hypertension, diabetes, asthma, pregnancy, severe skin infections and burn injuries, as well as malnutrition in children.

Support the Women's Health Initiative for Giving Tuesday

By fotcoh

Support the Women's Health Initiative for Giving Tuesday

Team Members