My son’s birth was wondrous, awesome and terrifying. Because of a complication, my wife had to undergo an emergency cesarean section. I remember the moment when nurses wheeled her into an operating room and instructed me to take off my shoes, put on some scrubs and wait. “We’ll come and get you,” one of them said, “when we’re ready to begin.”
I stood for a moment, paralyzed by fear, unable even to begin untying my shoes. Would the baby be OK? Did the doctors know what they were doing? And my wife—would the procedure hurt her?
These questions ricocheted in my head, and worry knotted in my chest. I’m happy to tell you that everything turned out fine. My son was born healthy and is now an energetic two-year-old. While the C-section meant several weeks of recovery, my wife came out of it OK.
We were fortunate that our son was delivered at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia—a top-notch medical facility with highly qualified doctors and nurses.
But in much of the world, many mothers-to-be do not have access to trained medical staff or any health care at all. If problems or complications arise, the situation can become extremely serious and even fatal.
According to a new UNICEF report released last month, more than half a million women around the world die in childbirth every year—and more than 99 percent of those deaths occur in developing countries.
In the industrialized world, the risk of dying from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth over the course of a woman’s lifetime is one in 8,0000. In the developing world, it is, astonishingly, one in 76. In Niger, it is one in seven.
Most of these deaths are preventable, and the solutions are not complicated. Skilled attendance at birth, emergency obstetric care, prenatal and postnatal care, in addition to good nutrition and basic health services, can significantly cut the risk of maternal mortality.
As UNICEF’s Chief of Health, Peter Salama, said recently: “The causes of maternal mortality are clear—as are the means to combat them… Yet women continue to die unnecessarily.”
Despite progress in some countries, maternal mortality remains among the most neglected areas of health care, according to the UNICEF report.
It has also been ignored or at least severely under-played by many media organizations. The UNICEF study drew modest news coverage, including reports in Agence France Presse, BBC, Reuters, and Voice of America. All of these news organizations have appeared numerous times in previous NewsNet posts and deserve credit for consistently covering issues of concern in the developing world.
In April, I wrote about another report that examined this issue, which also received far less media attention than it should have.
BACKGROUND NOTE: Good maternal health is intricately linked with child survival and with saving the lives of babies during the critical newborn period. According to UNICEF, infants whose mothers die within the first six weeks of their lives are more likely to die before age two than babies whose mothers survive.
UNICEF backs a range of programs to improve maternal and newborn health, including prenatal care, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, the training of skilled birth attendants, and emergency obstetric care initiatives. It also supplies midwifery kits, resuscitation equipment for newborns, and emergency obstetric kits to hospitals, health centers, and community health workers.
Were you aware of UNICEF’s efforts to save mothers and babies? Why do you think the issue of maternal health has not received as much attention as it clearly deserves?
Let me know.
