I have always been drawn to places like Africa. After watching the documentary Babies, I became even more interested in birth and child development there. I read an article titled, "Fighting for Life in Birth", through the BBC New Homepage. The current method of birthing in Mali shows a lack of prenatal care and/or medical care, poverty, and a lack of education. It is dangerous for mothers and babies.
"According to Unicef figures, in a single day 1,200 women in the country fall pregnant. Of those 230 will develop complications and 20 will die. Two hundred of the babies will not survive past four weeks."
BBC shares a birth story of a woman, like many in Mali, that are not allowed to seek prenatal care. She goes into labor at home, but after hours of labor, she is still not able to give birth. Her family finally takes her to a local medical facility where she finds out her pelvis is not large enough to allow the baby through, and that the baby had not survived. Being that they don't have a facility equiped for c-sections, they transported her another facility. In route, more complications arose and the mother also did not survive.
I, like the young woman in Mali, also had complications. My complications were also deadly for me and my baby. The difference between our situations were that I was had prenatal care, and I was a facility that was equiped to handle any serious situations that arose from pregnancies. There were many medical professionals watching over me, and the minute I developed any symptoms that were dangerous, the medical staff took action. For the poor young woman in Mali, she had no support. Not even the support of her husband.
Reading about this really made me realize how fortuante we are in The United States. It also made me realize how important prenatal care is for pregnant women. The BBC article shared information that it takes less money to save the life of a pregnant woman that it does to pay for her funeral.
*Information retrieved from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1325293.stm
Wow, what alarming information. I had no idea about how poor conditions were over there, or how bad it was. I've been meaning to watch that movie "Babies", I'll have to definately check it out now. ;o) Thanks for sharing that, very informative. ~Jaime
ReplyDeleteThe number of women who become pregnant daily and the number of women and children who do not make it is shocking. The birth of a child should be of a dream come true the story for this lady seems of a nightmare. Thank you for sharing I will defiantly look at the video Babies. You are so right we are truly blessed here in U.S.
ReplyDelete