Good Morning or Buen Día! What began as a chill week working at Casa Barista and Co, it quickly became one filled with many places to visit and observe.

On Tuesday, June 11, we met with George at the DOFMI storage facility, where he showed us the various equipment and resources that DOFMI donates to surrounding hospitals. This provided us with a greater understanding of DOFMI’s mission and work they have done. George highlighted the need for a low-cost, safe, and effective system to warm neonatal incubators and beds, a need we have observed in both the NICU and the delivery rooms at the hospital.

The current prototype utilizes non-medical grade light bulbs, which pose a risk of breaking over the baby. Additionally, the distance between the lights and the bed is too great to provide sufficient heat over time, and there is a lack of a temperature sensor to properly regulate and maintain the baby’s temperature. Later this summer, during our collaboration with Universidad APEC (UNAPEC), we will brainstorm and prototype ways to improve the current design with the hope that companies like Jhonson can produce and distribute the device.

The next day, we revisited San Lorenzo de los Mina Maternal Hospital and met Dr. Floren in person for the first time. She’s just as lively and passionate in person as she is on Zoom. We saw the Kangaroo Care room—the first of its kind in all of the Dominican Republic—where all babies under 2.5 kg are required to come for regular check-ups. This practice has helped reduce infant mortality and shorten mothers’ hospital stays at this facility. DOFMI has been working on expanding this practice to other hospitals!

One question that I was curious about from our last visit to this hospital was: What is the current treatment flow or standard of care a mother experiences when she’s about to go into delivery?

When I asked Dr. Floren, she walked us through the waiting room, where chairs are separated according to a mother’s trimester, and a nearby check-up room. Here, doctors and nurses conduct preliminary assessments of the mother, including blood tests and ultrasounds, all documented on paper. This is a critical step since many mothers come in during their last trimester or close to their due date without many health records on file at the hospital. After the initial assessment, mothers are transported to the second floor for the remainder of their stay.

Dr. Colon (OB/GYN) kindly offered to show us the delivery area of the hospital, where we witnessed both a C-section and a vaginal delivery. In these rooms, we learned about the “golden minute”—the first minute after birth, where resuscitation care and assessing the newborn’s health are crucial. It was here, along with many other sections of the hospital, that I saw the team of nurses and doctors, like Dr. Colon, seamlessly working together to provide a comfortable and safe delivery experience for the mother. Despite the challenges they faced, such as language barriers or equipment shortages like Doppler ultrasounds, they maintained a high level of commitment to their patients, full of care and empathy, which was admirable. 

The following day, we were joined by Dr. Floren, Teresa, George, and Mariana as we visited San Pedro Hospital. This hospital holds significant importance for DOFMI as it was where the Pumani device was first introduced in the Dominican Republic. They currently have three Pumani’s, but two of them will need to go through some technical repair before use again. Through demonstrations and lectures, hospital staff became familiar with how to use the device, and its success in reducing neonatal mortality has led to the Pumani being expanded to many other hospitals in the country.

In the afternoon, we visited potential maternity waiting home spaces that DOFMI wanted to establish. One option was a local church with a vacant two-story building consisting of individual rooms equipped with four or more beds and a bathroom. This community-centered area would provide a place where high-risk mothers could be cared for before being transported to the nearest hospital. Many mothers living in the surrounding Bateys would otherwise have to travel a long distance to reach a hospital. After visiting a Batey Clinic later on, it became clear that having a maternity waiting room would provide more resources and care to mothers during their last few weeks of pregnancy, ensuring a safer delivery.

From researching maternity waiting homes to now seeing DOFMI take proactive steps in creating the first maternity waiting home in the Dominican Republic, I am inspired by their dedication to improving maternal and neonatal health. At each step of their mission, they extend their generosity and warmth to others—listening to their stories and working alongside them to create solutions tailored to their needs, unafraid to try something new. As I continue this internship, I hope to deepen my understanding of the unique challenges faced by these communities, actively contribute to the development and implementation of impactful healthcare solutions, and build lasting relationships with the dedicated individuals involved in this transformative work.

~ Zoe