One Year After Earthquake, Birth Rate Triples in Haiti’s Slums

Crowded and desperate conditions in camps have led to a boom in rape, prostitution, and newborns.

More misery in Haiti. At a time when families devastated by earthquake, cholera, and poverty can hardly support them, babies are being born at an unprecedented rate in the country. Birth rates have tripled and at one hospital in Port-Au-Prince 50 babies are born each day, many only to be abandoned by mothers who have no means to care for them. The country’s economy is still in shambles after the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake and many women have been forced into prostitution, while stories are rife of rapists prowling through displaced persons’ camps and attacking sleeping women by slashing through their tents. Many women lost their families in the earthquake, leaving them more vulnerable to sexual assaults.