Childbirth education in rural haiti: reviving low-tech teaching strategies

On a medical mission into rural mountainous regions of Haiti, the authors were charged with teaching safer childbirth practices to untrained, mostly illiterate traditional birth attendants (TBA) who spoke Haitian Creole. In this isolated region with no physician or accessible hospital, almost all births occur at home. With no electricity, safe water supply, or sanitation facilities, childbirth education was a challenge. Accustomed to electronic, high-tech teaching aids, these childbirth educators had to modify educational strategies for these extraordinary circumstances. A successful solution was to revive decades-old teaching techniques and visual aids once used in Lamaze classes. The purpose of this article is to describe the teaching environment, the target audience, and the low-tech approach to childbirth education in Haiti.