Saving Mothers in the Dominican Republic

The main issues that pregnant women in Dominican republic face are limited transportation and hospital overcrowding while trying to sustain maternal health. Hospitals equipped to accommodate 1,500 births a year routinely handle 13,000, and many of the women who come in have had little or no prenatal care. In addition, these women simply do not have access to gynecological surgical care. As a result, birth-related complications such as fistula and incontinence are left untreated, often resulting in social ostracism for affected women.

Saving Mothers has teamed up with the Ministry of Health and the ILAC Mission in Santiago to find sustainable solutions to these problems. Together, we deploy teams of skilled surgeons, nurses, and anesthesiologists to provide pro bono surgical care twice per year. We train local surgeons and residents to perform surgical procedures to address issues including pelvic organ prolapse, fistula, and uterine fibroids. We teach healthcare workers to identify gynecologic problems that can be surgically corrected.