Guerline Laguerre is a 28-year-old mother-to-be in the heart of Haiti’s earthquake relief.
 
“I’m supposed to deliver on the second of the month (of Feburary),” she said. “I am waiting for the baby.”
 
More than 200 families live squashed together at Camp Foundation St Preux, a makeshift settlement in Port-au-Prince.

World Vision is providing pregnant women here with clean delivery kits. The kit includes soap, surgical gloves, clean sheets, sterilised string and razor to tie and cut the cord, gauze and a swaddling cloth for the baby.
 
There are an estimated 37,000 pregnant women among those affected by Haiti’s earthquake, which devastated the capital city and surrounding areas on 12 January.
 
In normal circumstances, 15 percent of pregnant women experience complications during delivery, requiring medical interventions. The risk of complications increases dramatically following a disaster.
 
“We would obviously urge women to try to get to a health centre if they can,” said Perry. “But if this is impossible, we have provided more than 120 women with sterilised equipment for a clean ‘home birth’.”
 
Guerline does not yet know where she will have her baby. “I will give birth anywhere in the camp or hospital,” she said. “But I know all the hospitals are full of people. There is no place to deliver, so it will have to be anywhere.”
 
Guerline’s optimism is humbling as she sits and talks in a shelter she shares with her friend.

It’s a small square empty space. No bed, no pots or pans or clothes. No soap or bucket. She lives in a rough rocky space made from scraps of corrugated iron and bed sheets. 

When the earthquake hit, Guerline was walking along the street. “All the babies were crying,” she said.

“I ran inside a public toilet. When I looked outside, I saw the houses falling. I was very afraid because it was really shaky and the baby shook a lot inside my womb. It was really kicking.”
 
Guerline’s house, which she shared with her friend, is now not safe enough to live in.

But even before the earthquake, “life was very difficult for me. It wasn’t easy,” she said.

“I used to make peanut butter to sell in a jar. I sold a small jar for 25 Gourdes (60 cents). When I have the baby I will continue the business. On average I could make about 42 jars per week.”

Despite her fear and poverty, Guerline is determined to rebuild her life. “I’m a woman who fights for life,” she said. “Regardless of the situation, I will find a job and look after my baby."
 
Within the next few days, World Vision is opening a mobile clinic, a few minutes’ walk from Guerline’s camp. The organisation has also provided 200 families there with mosquito nets, tarps and a kitchen set of pots, pans and cutlery.