(CNN) Jean-Atan Cadet and twin brother Jonas were welcomed into the world as the hemisphere's poorest nation embarks on another painful recovery.
Hours after Hurricane Matthew cut a destructive path across Haiti, their mother Julienne found herself in distress and bleeding during labor.
Cadet, 35, had been trudging alone on a dirt road near the rural southwestern community of Fond-des-Blancs. Workers from St. Boniface Hospital spotted her, the hospital's resident coordinator, Kat White, said in a phone interview Friday night.
A motorcycle the expectant mother had hired for the journey was unable to cross a river.
Julienne Cadet is helped across a river near Fond-des-Blancs.
"I was in so much pain," Cadet told White. "I was afraid I would lose the babies or pass away."
An ambulance rushed Cadet to St. Boniface. On Wednesday afternoon, she had one of four emergency cesarean sections performed at the hospital during the hurricane, according to White.
Cadet was fortunate.
At least 300 people have died since Matthew made landfall in Haiti on Tuesday as a Category 4 hurricane, according to Paul Altidor, Haitian ambassador to the United States.
The death toll is expected to rise as remote areas isolated by washed-out bridges become accessible, the ambassador said.
UN officials said the hurricane is the country's worst humanitarian crisis since the devastating 2010 earthquake, which killed about 200,000 people.
The country was only starting to rebuild when Matthew struck southwestern peninsula with 125 mph (200 kph) winds and heavy rains that destroyed homes, flooded villages, razed crops, swept away cattle and cut off the parts of the island.
"One of our physicians on a helicopter over the hardest hit areas said there are villages that just don't exist anymore," Ralph McDaniel, executive director of Ayiti Air Anbilans, the country's only helicopter ambulance service, said from Port au Prince.
"Another person on the helicopter said they didn't see anybody on the streets. They didn't see any cars. They didn't see anything. Was that because the people had all evacuated or because they are casualties? We don't know."
Conor Shapiro, who runs St. Boniface Hospital and a number of local clinics through the Massachusetts-based St. Bonifice Haiti Foundation, told CNN that road conditions after the storm had prevented patients from reaching the hospital.
"We are very concerned this is a forgotten disaster," he said. "At first, reports said there were three deaths. Now, reports go up to hundreds of deaths, but then we're out of contact with the entire parts of western side of the southern peninsula."
Hurricane Matthew pummels Haiti
A man stands in the remnants of a house destroyed by Hurricane Matthew in the southern town of Les Cayes on Monday, October 10. Matthew wreaked havoc in Haiti, killing hundreds, destroying homes and knocking out electricity in the impoverished Caribbean nation. More than 1.4 million people are in need of urgent assistance, a UN official says.
Two young men who lost their homes awake from a tent in the courtyard of a school where they took shelter in Port Salut on October 10.
A woman sits in debris where her house once stood in Les Cayes on October 10.
A group works to clear debris from the streets in Les Anglais on October 10.
A man uses salvaged material to build a makeshift roof for his damaged house in Port-a-Piment on October 10.
People sick with cholera receive medical assistance at a hospital in Jeremie on October 10. The destruction from Matthew has accelerated the cholera epidemic in Haiti and undermined strides made in fighting the waterborne disease, the country's leader says.
People cross one of the many southern coastal rivers where bridges were knocked out or damaged near Port-a-Piment on October 10.
People pass damaged buildings in a seaside fishing neighborhood of Port Salut on Sunday, October 9.
People bathe and wash clothes in a river that runs through Roche-à-Bateaux on October 9. Concerns are rising in the storm's aftermath about cholera, caused by the ingestion of contaminated water or food.
US soldiers unload bags of food from a helicopter in the hard-hit coastal city of Jeremie on October 9.
Worshippers pray at a Jeremie church destroyed by Matthew on October 9.
A cholera patient receives treatment at a state hospital in Jeremie on October 9.
Family members react during the funeral of Roberto Laguerre, 32, on Saturday, October 8, in Jeremie. Laguerre was killed when the hurricane struck.
Andrenne Joseph dries her clothes near the remains of her house in Jeremie on October 8.
Residents of Jeremie wait on the shore October 8 as a boat with water and food from the "Mission of Hope" charity arrives. Jeremie appears to be the epicenter of Haiti's growing humanitarian crisis in the wake of the storm.
Corn salvaged from destroyed crops dries in the sun Saturday after Hurricane Matthew swept through Jeremie.
People unload food and water from a "Mission of Hope" charity boat Saturday after Hurricane Matthew swept through Jeremie.
An aerial view of damage to the small village of Casanette near Baumond, Haiti on Saturday. The full scale of the devastation in rural Haiti is becoming clear in the days after Hurricane Matthew leveled huge swaths of the country's south.
Haitians gather along a flooded street in Haiti on Friday, October 7.
Palm trees lie flattened on the ground after high winds knocked them over.
Rubble lies in the street in the aftermath of the storm.
Residents carry a coffin containing the remains of a pregnant woman, a victim of Hurricane Matthew, in Jeremie on Friday, October 7. People across southwest Haiti were digging through the wreckage of their homes Friday, salvaging what they could of their meager possessions.
An aerial view shows destruction caused by Hurricane Matthew in Jeremie, Haiti, on Friday, October 7.
The damage from Hurricane Matthew was especially brutal in southern Haiti, where sustained winds of 130 mph punished the country.
Damaged homes are shown on Friday, October 7, in Haiti, where the death toll is in the hundreds.
A young man stands near the cathedral damaged by Hurricane Matthew, in Jeremie, Haiti, on October 7.
A man dries toys recovered from the debris left by Hurricane Matthew in Les Cayes, Haiti, on Thursday, October 6.
A girl washes mud from her feet after Hurricane Matthew passed through Les Cayes, Haiti, on October 6.
Fallen trees litter the ground outside a damaged church in Les Cayes on October 6. Hundreds of people have been killed in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, officials said, with the death toll expected to rise.
Girls wade through a flooded street in Les Cayes on October 6.
Two days after the storm, authorities and aid workers in Haiti still lack a clear picture of what they fear is the country's biggest disaster in years.
Saint Anne Church in Les Cayes is reduced to ruins. In the wake of the storm, the Electoral Commission postponed the country's presidential election, which had been scheduled for Sunday.
Residents repair their homes in Les Cayes.
Children sit inside a damaged church in Saint-Louis on Wednesday, October 5.
Men push a motorbike through a flooded street in Leogane on October 5. More than 300,000 people are in shelters across the country, the United Nations said.
A man carries a woman across a river at Petit Goave on October 5. A bridge collapsed because of the storm.
A woman cleans her flooded home following the overflowing of La Rouyonne River on October 5 in Leogane. Residents could face risks from standing water. Haiti is still recovering from a cholera outbreak after the devastating 2010 earthquake.
Nice Simon, the mayor of Tabarre, holds a baby on October 3, as she helps evacuate the area along a river.
Shapiro said he visited Immaculate Conception Hospital in the southern port city of Les Cayes on Friday. He described conditions there as "horrific."
"There is no electricity," he said. "There are still pools of water on the floor. They're not accepting patients. There are a couple of of doctors. We're talking about the biggest city in the southern peninsula."
He added, "I met with the medical director and he said he needs help, please. We feel like he's somebody who can really lead the efforts in Les Cayes but he just needs help."
Margaret Traub, head of global initiatives for International Medical Corps, told CNN on Friday night that the same hospital had received two new cholera cases since the hurricane. More than 28,500 cases of cholera had already been reported in Haiti in 2016, according to the Pan American Health Organization.
"They have no cleaning supplies," Traub said of the main hospital in Les Cayes.
"They don't have antibiotics... When we were there, the floor was quite dirty because the storm had swept through a lot of mud and dirt. They swept it up as fast as they can, but they don't have chlorine. They don't have the proper supplies in what is essentially a receiving ward for patients. While I was there, one patient who was very ill threw up all over the floor. There was only one nurse for the entire ward."
In Haiti, nine of the country's 15 main hospitals remain operational and five are unreachable by phone or radio, the Pan American Health Organization said this week. Les Cayes' main hospital had to be evacuated Tuesday and has since partially reopened.
People walk through their destroyed town of Jeremie, Haiti on Thursday October 6.
Hurricane Matthew has left 350,000 people in need of assistance. The country's civil protection authority said that 186 people were injured and more than 61,000 people were in 192 temporary shelters.
Traub described one family she met a shelter in Les Cayes.
"Their home was destroyed and they have only the clothes on their backs and they're living in one room with 200 other people in a school," she said.
"All of these people don't have access to health care. They don't have access to clean water."
Grand' Anse department, and its capital Jeremie, was one among the worst affected areas, according to Ariel Dominique, head of community affairs at the Haitian Embassy in Washington.
There was extensive damage to crops along swaths of southern Haiti.
"We have nothing left to survive on," said Marc Soniel Noel, deputy mayor of the town of Chantal in the hardest hit area. "All the crops have gone. All fruit trees are down. I don't have a clue how this is going to be fixed."
CNN's Madison Park, Angela Dewan and Chandrika Narayan contributed to this report.