 Port-au-Prince mom Marie Rseerve Lovely Jeanty rests with her hour-old daughter Jaloveite in a Haitian maternity ward on Tuesday.
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Perfect in every way, and just an hour new, Jalovette was born into a flawed and faulty world on Tuesday.
What should have been an entirely miraculous occasion - the birth of a healthy baby girl to her father, Jeannox Jeanty, and mom, Marie Reserve Lovely Jeanty - was tempered with uncertainty for all of the child’s days ahead.
Though the family survived, the earthquake destroyed their home.
Instead of other pregnant women and new mothers, who exclusively used the Port-au-Prince clinic before the January 12 earthquake, most of the beds in the aging hospital - where chickens strut down corridors - are now taken up by the wounded and maimed.
Maternity doctors, in several regions across this country, have told QMI Agency that they’ve seen an increase in complications during pregnancy - most often brought on by stress or injuries during the quake.
And while Jalovette was healthy and fine coming into the world, her parents worry about the first lesson she will be taught.
“We have an expression,” her father explained. “That what you have in your hands is yours.”
It is seize the day, but has suddenly become more urgent here, as people fight to be heard and fight to survive.
Leaving the hospital, Jalovette’s new home will have blankets as walls and a tarp as a roof.
Each day after will likely be difficult for her, her parents are certain.
“We do not have hope for tomorrow,” Jeannox said, standing over the baby as she nursed. “We have today. Everything else is now unclear.”
