Day: October 10, 2010
Benjamin
This morning I met Benjamin for the first time. He is less than 20 days old and the son of good friends Dave and Janet. Everyone is happy and healthy. Benjamin is a beautiful baby.
Dave is a doctor, and I took some time to ask him about how things in his life have changed since the arrival of Benjamin. We also talked about the distinction between how wonderful medical care is in Australia, compared with what might be expected in what is referred to as a ‘developing country’.
How fortunate we are to experience almost very low child mortality and excellent maternal health. Dave was explaining how easy and cheap it would be to save so many life through simple interventions relating to hydration and hygiene. Simple things we take so much for granted that we don’t even think twice.
During the week a friend related a story where apparently in parts of Sudan the prevalence of child mortality was so high that new born babies are not given names.
I am thankful for Dave and Janet that things are different for Benjamin. How long will it be before child mortality and maternal health become taken for granted by almost everyone on earth?
Four Days to Go! 8 MDG: MDG 5: Improve Maternal Health
AT only 15 days old, Louis Paul Coutts-Trotter carries the weight of a nation. He’s the son of ALP Member for Sydney Tanya Plibersek. Welcome to a wonderful world Louis!
- More than 350,000 women die annually from complications during pregnancy or childbirth, almost all of them — 99 per cent — in developing countries.
- The maternal mortality rate is declining only slowly, even though the vast majority of deaths are avoidable.
- In sub-Saharan Africa, a woman’s maternal mortality risk is 1 in 30, compared to 1 in 5,600 in developed regions.
- Every year, more than 1 million children are left motherless. Children who have lost their mothers are up to 10 times more likely to die prematurely than those who have not.
Today with only four days until the punishing task of running 10 sub-marathons across the globe inside of 30 days we turn to look at the fifth Millennium Development Goal- Improving Maternal Health.
The United Nations (UN) has two targets to meet this goal:
- Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio
- Achieve universal access to reproductive health
So, what does the UN have to say about progress? Here are some comments directly from the UN:
- Most maternal deaths could be avoided
- Giving birth is especially risky in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where most women deliver without skilled care
- The rural-urban gap in skilled care during childbirth has narrowed
- More women are receiving antenatal care
- Inequalities in care during pregnancy are striking
- Only one in three rural women in developing regions receive the recommended care during pregnancy
- Progress has stalled in reducing the number of teenage pregnancies, putting more young mothers at risk
- Poverty and lack of education perpetuate high adolescent birth rates
- Progress in expanding the use of contraceptives by women has slowed
- Use of contraception is lowest among the poorest women and those with no education
- Inadequate funding for family planning is a major failure in fulfilling commitments to improving women’s reproductive health
Inequalities in care during pregnancy are striking. That is a strong choice of words from the UN. That is a concern.
Maternal mortality is declining, but more needs to be done. This report from the UN gives a good visual description of where the gap lies through use of comparative graphs. Take a look.
Don’t we all wish that every child and mother could enjoy the health and opportunity like Louis and Tanya.
(Please play Six Bridges of Separation- forward this to someone you know and see how long it takes to get to Tanya Plibersek. I’ll send out a blog once I hear back from her to let you know how long it took! Are we really that connected?!)
Incongruence and empty seats
Unhappy with the “still unsatisfactory” public attendance at competition venues, the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), on Saturday, launched an investigation into complaints of unavailability of tickets despite many seats lying vacant at some stadiums.
At a Press conference on Saturday, CGF chief Michael Fennell made his stand clear when he interrupted OC Secretary General Lalit Bhanot while he was answering a question on the ticketing issue, and said it was decided in a meeting that the matter would be investigated and the report submitted by Sunday.
When asked if blackmarketing of tickets was resulting in unavailability at counters, Bhanot said, “I don’t have any information on that…”
The report titled Irked by empty seats, fennell launches probe published today (10 October 2010) in the IndianExpress.com.
What should we make of this and does this have anything at all to do with extreme poverty?
Consider that there are more people living in poverty in India alone than in Africa. So says BBC News on 13 July earlier this year.
Eight Indian states account for more poor people than in the 26 poorest African countries combined, a new measure of global poverty has found.
That is not a derogatory reflection on India. Great progress has been made in India moving people out of poverty, and this trend should be applauded and supported. There was also much media attention given to the state of the Commonwealth Games facilities prior to the opening of the current competition. I would suggest this has less to do with Indian technology, ingenuity and workmanship, but might be more related to what some have described in their opinion as a prevailing culture of corruption.
The games are part way through, and the Commonwealth Games Chief has ordered an investigation.
My response is what a completely incongruent response! In a city where the cost of food to eat out is measured (in Australian currency) in cents, and where the livelihood through income of many people is measured in the single figure digits of US Dollars.
There are better things we could be doing with our time, money and attention that worry about why the horse has already bolted. Could the frustration which Michael Fennel has rightfully expressed be more constructively leveraged elsewhere I wonder?
Building Bridges 