Haitian women in the Dominican Republic face dire situations as policies force them into unsanitary, unmonitored childbirth settings. This situation arises as Dominican authorities deploy immigration agents to hospitals to detain migrants.
One affected is Katty Joseph, a 20-year-old Haitian who gave birth outside a healthcare facility out of fear. Like many others, she feared deportation if she sought medical help without legal documents.
Immigration detentions at hospitals, ongoing for over a year, have primarily targeted Haitians fleeing their country’s severe humanitarian crisis. These actions often involve detaining mothers and newborns.
Joseph, living in a car repair shop in the Dominican Republic, described her childbirth experience. Propped on a makeshift bed on the shop’s floor, she delivered her baby with the aid of a friend. She performed critical tasks herself, including cutting the umbilical cord with a razor. Tragically, her newborn didn’t survive past the first day.
“It was a very difficult moment,” Joseph expressed in Creole, struggling to convey the depth of her grief.
The situation highlights the desperate choices faced by undocumented immigrants in the Dominican Republic, where accessing necessary healthcare could lead to deportation, yet avoiding it brings significant risks to both mothers and babies.