Global health research in Haiti improves prenatal care back home

Synopsis: A mentor of Rana’s at Harvard suggested her expertise in pre-eclampsia could be really useful in Haiti, where incidence was particularly high. Rana took up the challenge, traveled to Haiti, and was shocked by what she found: over 17 percent of pregnant women in Haiti had either pre-eclampsia or eclampsia, and some mothers actually died of the condition—unknown among her patients in Boston. Even more worrisome, many of the mothers in Haiti continued to suffer from high blood pressure and its effects long after their babies were born, putting entire families at socio-economic risk.