When the Caesarian section recovery process prevented the mother of 2-week-old twins Richardson and Rejeffson from taking the newborns for a check-up, her cousins stepped in to help. They brought the newborns to the Gaston Margron camp where USAID-funded partner Save the Children operates a mobile clinic.

The babies were also recovering, this time from a cold that had disrupted their breastfeeding, leaving them with little nutrition intake for several days.

“You need to bring the mother in,” explained Micheline Garçon, the Infant and Young Child Feeding supervisor with Save the Children in Port-au-Prince. “We can provide training to her because it could be a problem with the way she is holding the babies or how they are being introduced to the milk.”

The cousins listened attentively as Micheline described simple techniques for helping the twins to latch on the mother’s breast. At the end of the impromptu training session, the nurse in the clinic ascertained that the twins were healthy but needed to breastfeed regularly to ensure they continued to grow at a normal rate. As the cousins left the camp, they promised to bring the mother in to meet with the lactation consultant.

The USAID-funded mobile clinic in Gaston Margron not only serves the camp population of 6,000, but also reaches out to others in the community and will treat any patient who comes to the clinic.

As of July 6, USAID had provided nearly $62 million in health and nutrition assistance to those affected by the January 12 earthquake.