This report describes findings from a national survey of pregnant women in Haiti regarding the social epidemiology of pedisyon (perdition), or “arrested pregnancy syndrome,” a condition believed to be associated with infertility. Data collected on mortality of respondents' sisters were used to indirectly measure the prevalence of this culture-bound syndrome in the adult female population and to compare its distribution in urban and rural areas. Perdition appears to be a fairly common event that affects a large proportion of Haitian women.

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is one of the least studied HIV-related risk factors in Haiti although research in the United States and Europe has clearly established the link between childhood trauma and HIV risk behaviors. Understanding the role and impact of CSA on HIV-positive Haitian women is likely to strengthen future HIV prevention and treatment efforts aimed at this vulnerable group.

The prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) among women living in Haiti increased from 25% in 2006–29% in 2012, with escalating reports of crisis in the last several years. We examined the association between IPV and HIV status among these women in Haiti. Participants were drawn from a larger sample of women (n = 513) with a history of IPV. Women living with HIV (n = 55) were matched to uninfected women (n = 110) to form a control group. Attitudes towards gender roles, mental and physical well-being, and partner violence were assessed and compared.

The International Development Committee’s (IDC) inquiry into sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) and related misconduct in the humanitarian sector is welcomed. This submission addresses the IDC’s examination of the measures and suggests changes necessary to establish effective safeguarding policies and processes.

The past few decades have seen an explosion of writing by women from the Caribbean. From Antigua, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Trinidad - women of African, European, and mixed ancestry have explored and manipulated their complex matrix: of languages and subtle linguistic codes; of folk traditions and formal English schooling; of vital politics and tormented histories; of intoxicating natural beauty and devastating poverty. They have written of mothertongues and motherlands, of exile, of the boundaries of bodies, of the politics of owning and not owning themselves.

“A must-read report… you will be inspired.”-- Edwidge Danticat, author, Breath, Eyes, Memory.

Être capable de transférer ses gènes ou pouvoir fonder une famille peut être difficile pour quelqu’un qui est considéré comme infertile. Si l’infertilité est une maladie biologique, elle est aussi connue comme un problème social de par le nombre de personnes (15% de la population) qu’elle touche et ses effets dans la vie des personnes désireuses d’un enfant. Toutefois, elle affecte les femmes d’une manière particulière, du fait de la stigmatisation qui est rattachée à l’infertilité féminine.

L’analyse de trois récits de vie de femmes haïtiennes émigrant en Martinique et ayant recours aux sexualités transactionnelles (ST) aide à comprendre le rôle de la sexualité dans les stratégies de « normalisation » administrative et sociale des femmes les plus précaires. Chacun des récits illustre un modèle de ST : la prostitution au sens strict, le mariage comme continuité du « plaçage » existant en Haïti et les ST impliquant un partenaire ressource (voire un multipartenariat sériel).

Research shows that in the Caribbean one-third of people living with HIV continue to engage in unprotected sexual practices. Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and HIV-related risk behaviors have been found to play a contributory role in HIV transmission. We aimed to analyze gender differences in the association between CSA and substance use and sexual risk behaviors among Haitians living with HIV. A total of 276 HIV-positive individuals participated in this study with 56% experiencing sexual abuse during childhood.

The paper discusses the current patterns of sexual unions in rural Haiti. After reviewing the historical and contemporary factors influencing the relatively low proportions of rural women legally married, an approach to categorizing Haitian unions using culturally meaningful categories is presented. Drawing on data from the 1977 Haitian Fertility Survey Pretest, collected on 747 rural women, the paper analyzes current union status and age at first union, and associated socioeconomic background factors.