Class Notes

On Shaky GroundMaternal InstinctsANNE PFITZER ’85The main university hospital in Port-au-Prince was plagued with problemsbefore the January earthquake. Sewagewould sometimes back up; bathrooms oftenwere out of order. But that was nothing comparedto what Anne Pfitzer ’85 found when shearrived at the hospital with Jhpiego, an affiliateof Johns Hopkins University that focuses onmaternal and child health.The hospital was vacant. Supplies, beds, andequipment had been dragged outside, and thematernity ward was housed in a cluster of tents.Obstetrics had used an indoor operating roomuntil about a week after the quake, when a giantaftershock hit. Pfitzer arrived in Port-au-Princethree days after that tremor. The Haitian Ministryof Health directed Pfitzer, Jhpiego’s associatedirector of global programs, and hercolleagues to the university hospital. “Wethought the best way to help was to leap intoaction as soon as possible,” she said. “FromJohns Hopkins Hospital and from stores andpharmacies in the Dominican Republic, we hadgotten everything we needed to establish a smallbirth clinic.”They got to work amidst the chaos. Maternitytents sat alongside pediatrics, which sometimesmeant that children’s limbs were beingamputated near women in labor. “You hadgangrene next to C-sections, which is not whatyou want,” Pfitzer said. Women in labor, sometimesattended to by medical workers withlimited obstetrical training, had no privacy andendured 100-degree temperatures.Richard LamporteAnne Pfitzer ’85Pfitzer described a frenzied scene: womenin labor ambling about, relief workers and missionarieshanding out water, the Army’s 82ndAirborne standing guard, even a youngstersmoking marijuana in the maternity ward.Among her stories is a portrait of one resoluteHaitian woman, Marlene Gourdet, the chiefnurse of the maternity ward. Gourdet foughtrelentlessly to move the ward back inside thebuilding, which had been deemed safe. Pfitzercalls her a hero. “She was haranguing supportstaff about getting back into the building,”Pfitzer said. “We latched onto this formidablewoman. With her help, we saved equipment.We started doing services inside.”For Jhpiego, Pfitzer’s work was hands-onand immediate, but also conceptual and longterm.She helped women in labor, handwrotemedical charts, and doled out prenatal vitamins,but she also drafted proposals, attended meetings,and coordinated planning with agencies ofthe United Nations. She returned home toMaryland after ten days, satisfied that she andher colleagues had helped reopen the maternityward and restock it with basic supplies. But shewas exhausted and pensive. She shared the concernsof her colleague, Richard Lamporte, whowrote in a blog:“. . . Seven thousand pregnant women—all expected to give birth in the nextmonth. After the earthquake, will theymake different decisions about theirfamily, the size of their family, healthychoices? Will they know where and whento seek care? . . .”C O N C O R D A C A D E M Y M A G A Z I N E S P R I N G 2 0 1 022Anne Pfitzer ’85 sortingmedical supplies inHaiti; above, the constantmedical activityshe witnessedPfitzer may not learn the answer firsthand.In March, she left Jhpiego after sixteen yearsfor a position at Save the Children. Haiti wasa sort of grand finale, an indelible memory.“The hardest thing is those stories,” she said.“Everybody tells you where they were on theday of the earthquake, the people who lost alltheir family. After a while that would reallyget to me, but doing the work was really inspiringand motivating.”No quake could quash the unique emotionsthat live in a maternity ward. “There was a lot ofjoy. Even though their lives had fallen apart,they had this new life,” she said. “There weresome sweet moments like that.”—Gail Friedman