4 minute read
Celebrating Maternal Health This Mother's Day
Dedicating a day for the reverence of mothers is a practice as old as human civilization.
Celebrating Mother’s Day is today an annual practice that’s building in momentum with more and more being spent on showering mothers with gifts with affection.
This year social media will be abuzz in the race to share the most ostentatious and outrageous tributes to mothers and television ads will remind us that mothers are “worth it”.
However dreadful, it has to be acknowledged that on this day, as on every other day, 830 women and girls will die as a result of becoming mothers – 303,000 a year according to the World Health Organization’s 2018 estimate.
Moreover, in 34 countries, mostly in Africa, more than 150 in every 1,000 mothers will experience the death of an infant. In fact, maternal health is a key indicator of global inequality, with outcomes for mothers in low-income countries being far more tragic than in wealthy nations.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "maternal health refers to the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period.". In a broader perspective, maternal health can be seen as all of the personal and physical aspects, social and cultural challenges, health conditions and practices, in a woman's life and body that allow her to thrive after pregnancy and delivery.
However, due to various economic, political, cultural, and societal factors, women are frequently denied access to adequate health care, which can leave women and children with lifelong injuries or, for the 830 women per day, be fatal.
As women are celebrated with flowers, the emotional, economic, and social consequences of losing women in pregnancy and childbirth reverberate throughout societies, especially those with the fewest resources to promote safe maternal health. According to WHO, developing nations account for 99% of all maternal mortality. Maternal mortality is also more significant in women living in rural regions and in impoverished communities where education levels are low.
Furthermore, in developing countries, a mother’s death not only creates an emotional crisis, but can lead to financial instability due to the loss of livelihoods, girls dropping out of school to take care of siblings, and higher mortality among the children of the household.
Inequality and conflict are among the drivers of maternal mortality, in Brazil, which has the largest economy in Latin American, maternal death rates remain alarmingly high. Brazil's maternal mortality rates are five to 10 times higher than in nations with comparable economic status.
Additionally, in Venezuela, thousands of women are fleeing their homes owing to a lack of maternity health facilities. It has to also be acknowledged that the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the availability of maternal health services and increased the mortality rate in developing countries.
Safe childbirth and the best start in life with Connect Global’s maternity home in Honduras
Any community’s wellbeing is tightly linked to the quality of its maternal health. Healthy women have a greater chance of having healthy children, which equals stronger generations contributing to their communities. As a result, it is critical not only to increase awareness about maternal health but also to help communities and governments to provide affordable, highquality maternal health care.
In Honduras, Connect Global is working with the regional hospital of Atlantida which serves around 5,500 new baby deliveries a year. Our maternity home ensures women no longer have to endure undignified and unsafe conditions while in recovery and while their newborns were in the NICU.
On Mother’s Day, as on every day, in our work with women in Honduras, Connect Global goes beyond simply providing a bed to lie on - we champion the rights of women to safe and respectful maternity care. We ensure that mothers have a place to recover while their babies are receiving care which allows women and their children the time they need to heal.
—Leroy Brownlow
