Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Doctor of Healthcare Administration (D.H.A.)

School

Health Services

Advisor

Magdeline Aagard

Abstract

Haiti has a history of natural disasters that have played a part in the country’s weak infrastructure, poor quality health care, and short life expectancy. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand the experiences of health care professionals providing prenatal, perinatal, and postpartum health care services before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Haiti to gain an understanding of the gaps in disaster response in reproductive health care. The theoretical bases for this study were community resilience theory and reproductive justice theory. Data were collected from interviews with 10 health care professionals working in Haiti providing reproductive health care services. Data were transcribed and manually coded into two data sets: pre-COVID-19 conditions and post-COVID-19 conditions based on the research questions. Five themes emerged from pre-COVID-19/post-COVID-19 similarities: partnerships directly impact health outcomes, impact of disparities and the need for equity, poor infrastructure and educational impact, lack of reproductive health care, and limited health care delivery. Seven themes emerged from the pre-COVID-19/post-COVID-19 differences: decrease in social support in all regions, decrease of community support, lack of reproductive health care and increased home births, increased disease prevention and limited consequences of COVID-19, decrease in all health care funding sources, very limited health care delivery and minimal quality care, and negative impact of fear. Findings indicated that disaster relief interventions have not evolved to protect peri- and postnatal women after a disaster. Findings may inform future disaster relief policy and programs.

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