After the Ministry of Interior & Police announced that migratory checkpoints should not allow the passing of pregnant women with six months of pregnancy, the media has begun to cover the situation.
El Dia reports that at times, the country’s public maternity wards are 70% occupied by foreign women, a situation that costs the country billions in deliveries and medical care. A major birthing tourism industry exists, set up to assist Haitian women in traveling to the Dominican Republic to give birth at major public hospitals. Likewise, thousands of undocumented immigrants that live in the country give birth here.
Public Health Minister Daniel Rivera told the press that the foreigners drive up the maternal mortality statistics. Most Haitians come without any records of prenatal check-ups.
The National Migration Council (CNM) announced on 28 September 2021 that it will be applying measures to avoid the entry of illegal foreigners, including pregnant women with more than six months.
Journalists of El Dia toured some of the leading maternity hospitals in the capital city, where great affluence of pregnant women and births of Haitian nationality was apparent. For instance, of the 13 women that had given birth at the San Lorenzo de los Mina maternity hospital, only three were Dominicans.
Arelis Monegro, from the security area of the same hospital, said that on 29 September, of 38 babies born of which perhaps 10 or 12 were Dominican. Rodaily Medina, a pediatrician, said more Haitian babies are born there than Dominicans.
El Dia mentions that in 2019, the National Health Service (SNS) had revealed that RD$1.8 billion was spent in maternal care for immigrants of which 90% were Haitians. According to these data, 14,858 vaginal deliveries were performed, representing an expenditure of RD$131,330,456 and 5,590 cesarean sections were carried out for RD$101,756,671. The remainder corresponded to consultations, hospitalizations and surgeries.
According to data provided by the National Health Service (SNS) to Diario Libre, as of August 2021, Dominican public hospitals had registered 70,279 births, of which 20,402 were to foreign women. In 2020, of the 80,768 deliveries, 30,322 were to Haitian women, representing 37.5%.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
El Dia
30 September 2021