DEAR
GLOBAL GIRLS Maternity Health
Unpaid Maternity Leave
Naina Giri + Pg 4 Importance of Maternal Health
Patrcia Mercado + Pg 6 Behind Every Beauty There' s The Ugly
Amani Smith + Pg 8 COVER DESIGN BY Vy Nguyen
Our Message Dear GlobalGirls and fellow readers, Dear GlobalGirls is a monthly digital magazine dedicated to educate, inspire, and empower young girls around the globe. Our mission is to empower girls through educating them on current events and social issues, highlighting young girls who show leadership in their communities, and overall creating a welcoming and resourceful space. Founded by two Generation Z high school students from New York City, we strive to encourage girls to speak out for themselves, inspiring them to become the next leaders of our generation. This month’s topics focus on the unfair policy regarding maternity leave and the dangers women face during childbirth. Our team worked diligently expressing their opinions, personal experiences, and research when writing about these critical issues. We have such passionate writers who put their voices into their pieces calling for change. It is truly inspiring to see their voices come to life on paper. Read our magazine and learn about the financial crisis women face during their unpaid maternity leave, and the shocking amount of women who die each day due to poor maternal health. Throughout this magazine, we hope you feel empowered and are educated to advocate for change. Participate in the fight for equal healthcare for all, regardless of gender, race, religion and sexuality. Your health matters, so let's fight for it together. All women should be able to start their own family without feeling being financially burdened. With these topics in mind, we are excited to see what is in store for Dear GlobalGirls as we continue to create monthly magazines around the globe serving to educate, inspire, and empower girls around the world! We hope you take away a new piece of information in mind and take your part in creating a more equitable society. Lastly, a huge thank you to our team who have been dedicated to serving our organization in the creation of our monthly magazines. We’d love to hear all your thoughts and suggestions so please email us a dearglobalgirls@gmail.com to chat or give feedback. Sincerely, Sandra and Talia (founders)
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Unpaid Maternity Leave BY NAINA GIRI To grow a child in your womb for nine toiling months, undergo a long lasting, laboring birth, and find yourself in a financial and mental crisis due to the expense a child requires and your workplace’s apathy to your needs is contemptible. USDA calculates that raising a child in the U.S. for 18 years costs 233,000+ dollars, and countries range from giving 6 weeks to 58 weeks of paid maternity leave.
But the U.S. is one of the five countries worldwide, alongside Lesotho, Liberia, Papua New Guinea and Swaziland, that refuses to offer legal guarantee of granting new mothers the well deserved right to a paid maternity leave.
Even when women simply announce their pregnancy at work, they’re often met with hostility in the form of demotions, lowered salaries, harsher criticism, etc. Most women fear
reporting
fear
of
actions law. most
losing not
Once
a
being they
and
mere
discrimination
their
jobs,
leave they
11%
of
under
it
up
time.
these
leave,
to
grant
of
federal
maternity
only the
out
despite
allowed
request
workforces
employees, leave
such
the
a
paid
But
paid
maternity leave is necessary for so many reasons.
For one, the physical stresses put on a woman's body during and after labor is taxing and long- lasting; especially mothers who needed surgeries. C-sections require months of recovery due to potential complications including anemia, abdominal pains, any negative reactions to surgical staples, inability to to be physically active for periods of time, and much more. Co-workers may underestimate these effects, as happened with Diana T. who shared her disturbing story. She shares, “I was bleeding at work because they pressured me to come back in. I went back to work in June, and a week after that I had emergency surgery to have the placental polyps removed. I had another surgery right before I went back, a D&C [dilation and curettage, involving the surgical removal of part of the lining of the uterus], and...I wanted a week off, but..went back to work three days later. ” In addition to being denied resting time, the stress of a partner not getting paid leave as well and unable to be present for support slows recovery even further.
In addition to physical health, mental health complications are exceedingly common in women after giving birth. A national U.S. study from 2005 links one additional week of maternity leave to a 6-7% decline in depressive symptoms. Diana T. also experienced postpartum depression. She “got to the point where I despised [the baby] for a while...so stressed about trying to make money, having a job with a bunch of jerks, and [the baby] was sickly...didn’t have time for doctor visits...was despising her because she was so sick and I had to take her to the doctor and I didn’t have time off of work.” An unhealthy bond is already created between a mother and daughter, and this can lead to negative effects not just on the mother, but on the baby’s childhood and future mental health.
Despite these obstacles, women account for 66% of unpaid family caregivers in the U.S. Additionally, the finances lost due to unpaid maternity leave fails to incorporate womens’ struggle with wage gap, higher positions lost to men, being held to unfairly rigorous standards, and even more when other
identity
Women
with
markers children
come are
into
judged
consideration. incompetent,
women of color have higher wage gaps than white women, and women of the LGBTQ+ community are withheld jobs from employers.
In short, it’s imperative we take womens’ pain with sincerity, and empathize by providing the resources to recover. According to Newsela , a 2008 study showcases that parents rate their son’s pain higher than their daughter’s. Men are heavily coaxed into suppressing emotions in order to create a tough exterior,
so
instantly
considered
greater
than
a
were
if
when
they
woman
do
showcase
pain,
and
authentic
to
more
exhibit
the
it’s
same
discomfort. This shouldn’t imply men are weaker or ingenuine, but bring attention to the clear flaws in the
workfield
in
terms
of
medical
concerns.
Therefore, changes in our laws are urged. It should be
ensured
that
workplaces
address
maternity/family leave with reasonable conditions and no hostility, breastfeeding accommodations is to be situated, eligibility for higher positions aren’t comprised
by
children,
and
any
discrimination
reported will result in affirmative action with no possible threats to the reporter’s career.
https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2017/01/13/cost-raising-child https://www.hrw.org/report/2011/02/23/failing-its-families/lack-paid-leave-and-work-family-supports-us https://newsela.com/read/doctors-dont-take-girls-as-seriously/id/49184/?search_id=5b1ac65c-21ce-4c80-93ac-9913f17e4da0
Importance of Maternal Health By: Patricia Mercado According to the World Health Organization (2015), there are about 830 mothers across the globe who die every single day. For every woman that dies, there are about 20 other women who suffer from infections and conditions as a result of the issues during their pregnancy or during labor. The lack of efficiency and continuing development of maternal healthcare is an ongoing problem for women all around the world. The truth is these deaths could have easily been prevented if only these mothers had access to quality emergency childbirth care. Many women don’t have access to high-quality care during pregnancy and childbirth due to the lack of financial means. Race also plays a part in understanding whether or not one might receive quality care. In the United States alone, there are 17 deaths per 100,000 live births. This country compared to all other developed countries, does far worse in preventing any deaths related to pregnancy. Out of these deaths, the rate of deaths for African Americans, American Indians, and Alaskan Native pregnant women are far worse than the rate of deaths for white pregnant women due to the lack of greater quality care.
In the year 2017, both SubSaharan Africa and South Asia had roughly 254,000 maternal deaths. Most of these women are from low-income families and are unlikely to receive proper healthcare for both their babies and themselves. These women from underdeveloped countries are likely not attended to by skilled doctors or personnel during childbirth. They also do not have the means to go to a doctor for prenatal visits.
The Philippines is a small third world country located in Southeast Asia. With a population of over 100 million people, many families, most coming from those with low-income, do not have the finances to visit hospitals that have the ability to provide excellent care throughout their pregnancy. In addition, a lot of mothers in this country are barely even over the age of 18, some even younger than that. 1 in 10 women from the ages of 15-19 has a child of their own. These women are still young enough to be in high school and college. They don’t have jobs of their own or money to use to sustain themselves. Today, we have seen a great decline in the number of deaths that have occurred due to issues during pregnancy and labor. The global maternal mortality rate had dropped by 38% from the years 2000 to 2017. However, this is not enough. Many women around the world are still dying and those who live from complications have to suffer from disabilities and serious injuries for the rest of their lives. Women all around the world should be given access to greater quality healthcare to be able to have a healthy and safe pregnancy. We need to be able to treat these women with great care no matter what their race, age, or status in life is. They should never have to be afraid to create life and bring it into this world. In the end, isn’t that what we want for our own mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters? https://newsela.com/read/doctors-dont-take-girls-as-seriously/id/49184/?search_id=5b1ac65c-21ce-4c80-93ac-9913f17e4da0 https://www.hrw.org/report/2011/02/23/failing-its-families/lack-paid-leave-and-work-family-supports-us https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2017/01/13/cost-raising-child
Behind Every Beauty There's The Ugly by Amani Smith I've heard all kinds of amazing stories about the uterus and vagina. How it can bleed for 7 days and you don't die, how it can carry a little human for 9 months, or even the fact the clitoris has over 15,000 nerve endings and while it's amazing we're more open about the beauty of it, I wish we'd be more open about the ugly of it too.
May 21st, 2019, I started experiencing the worst cramps of
fibroids. I was not one of those people. I thought
my life. I mean, the WORST cramps of my life. I could barely
finding
move; I was surprised I even made it off the train. Luckily, I
recovery,
was with my mother at the time, so I stayed at her job for a
blood is ALWAYS the worst part.
the
problem
but
things
would got
lead
worse.
to
Let's
a
road
just
say,
of the
while before I went back home and the cramps did not stop
for
long.
I
started
going
to
hospitals
and
doctors
appointments. I went to the hospital three times in just May alone and out of those three, two of the doctors did not check to see what was wrong with me. No ultrasound or anything. "You just have bad cramps." They said, this was at Cedar Sinai and before you ask, yes she was. Not to mention
the
nurse
who
intentionally
bruised
my
arm
because I had a hard time peeing in a cup, this was at California Hospital. For my third hospital visit, I had to call an ambulance. The pain got to the point where I was on the floor damn near blacking out. When they finally arrived, I was taken to Kaiser hospital, but even when I got there, I was in the waiting room for almost two hours and within those two hours, I had to give them a pee sample and ended up falling onto the bathroom floor. Yeah, not my proudest
moment.
When
I
finally
got
a
room
and
pain
medication, I was really out of it at that point. m not sure if it was the medicine, or the pain put that much of a strain on my body to make me dissociate. During this time, my mom told the doctor to check me for fibroids. Of course, he was shocked at this request. I mean, I was twenty at the time. How could I possibly have fibroids? But my mom was right.
I
was
diagnosed
with
fibroids
May
29th,
2019.
Fibroids are tumors on, or in the uterus. They can range from golf ball size to the size of the palm of your hand. It causes:
severe
bleeding,
immobilizing
cramps,
infertility,
and prolonged periods, can cause anemia and get this, it can cause difficulty peeing. How funny, right? Most people go their whole life never knowing they even have
May 30th, 2019, I started bleeding. It wasn't light bleeding, it wasn't medium bleeding, girl, it wasn't even heavy bleeding, it was hemorrhage looking level of bleeding. I had to sit on the toilet for ten minutes at a time. I was losing more blood than my body was making. This led to my first blood transfusion June 7th, 2019. And no, it didn't stop there. Not even five days later, I had to go to the hospital for losing too much blood again and had a horrible and disgusting accident while I was heading there by bus. I didn't have a job, or money really, so the bus was all I had and I tried to stay positive and keep it pushing, but hearing
nurses
say
I
have
to
take
my
uterus
out
repeatedly and not being able to have children really messed with my brain. I had a dream of having a child and raising them without the trauma I grew up with, and I was being told that could be taken away. I remember locking myself in my hospital bathroom crying my eyes out while my mom, who brought me extra
clothes,
and
my
nurse
were
talking
about
hysterectomy I never said I wanted to have on the side of the door. Things didn't get much better fromÂ
there. I started taking iron pills and birth control pills. Note of advice, if you have a weak stomach, don't combine the two. I guarantee you'll be throwing up for weeks. Imagine being moderately dehydrated and losing way too much blood. It's not fun having to sit on the floor every ten minutes to make it to a bathroom that's less than one minute to walk to. Regardless of this, I got a little better by August surprisingly and by better I mean I could walk, eat and hold down water. At this point, they took me off the birth control pill and gave me the nexplanon and started school and as
you
may
have
guessed,
I
was
severely
depressed
and
secluded.
To
make
matters
worse,
I
developed
a
psychological addiction that follows me wherever I go and I hate it. It was hard getting through that year, I'm not gonna lie, I was so tired, I was so ready to die, but I somehow passed all of my classes and heard the greatest news: my surgery to remove the fibroid was coming soon.
We fast forward to January 2020 and I was starting school again and yes, I was still bleeding and I've had four blood transfusions at this point. Classes were going well and I started making more friends. As time passed, I got a call a week before from a woman who told me my surgery was February 14th. I was finally going to be free of this. To add stress to the situation, I had to get my blood levels checked the day before I went into my surgery. When my doctor told me to get a blood transfusion as soon as possible, or he couldn't green light the surgery, you need to understand that something in my brain snapped for a second hearing one person could easily take my freedom away, again, but I did go to California hospital as soon as possible, they take my insurance, so I go there often, but I made the decision to not get the transfusion after finding out I was at a 6.9 with my blood levels. If you don't know, the minimum for women is a 7. When I was done, I went home at 1 am and slept until I got up for my surgery which was around 1pm, but I had to be there at 11am. And that's it. I got my surgery, the nexplanon was a nice help and that was honestly both the best and most nerve wracking thing that has ever happened to me. February 14th 2020 and the fibroid was gone. I want to be clear, however, the bleeding didn't stop until March and then my period was back to normal. I needed one more blood transfusion after my surgery and that was it! Unfortunately, I developed PMDD, so each "normal" period is extremely triggering and draining for me.
Sis, I could sit here and tell you how this made me a
Did you know Black women are more likely to die
better person. I could tell you I still passed all my classes
giving birth than their white counterparts? How many
both semesters and made plenty of new friends along the
of you knew bleeding for more than ten days isn't
way. I could tell you during the entire summer of 2019, I
normal?
was stuck inside and it gave me time to ask myself tough
know
questions which resulted in my coming out as nonbinary
quarter? Have you read the horror stories about the
and being proud of it. I could tell you I published my own
depo
book of poems and can even tell you it gave me the
caused? Have you ever heard of fibroids before this
courage to cut all my hair off. I can shout out my therapist
story? What about endometriosis? PMDD? Ovary cyst?
from my school who helped me through this and process
Ovarian cancer? Have you been checked out lately?
my emotions healthily and how to cope responsibly on my
Did you make an appointment with your OBGYN? Do
own. I could tell you I fixed my standards on who deserves
you have access to one? Did you know birth control
me and who doesn't, but none of that changes the fact
can
that I was absolutely traumatized. Nine months and two
above? Did you know they could also make things
weeks of uncontrolled bleeding and pain is so traumatic. I
worse? Did you know a lot of the ailments mentioned
am
do not have a known cause? This is something that I
not
brave,
nonbinary
and
person
I
who
am
not
was
your
failed
hero. by
the
I
am
a
Black
medical
and
education system again and again.
How
your
blood
shot
help
about
birth
control
immobilizing
clots
shouldn't
control
many
and
of
the
cramps? be
the
Did
bigger
damage
things
I
you
than
it
a
has
mentioned
would never wish on anyone, no matter how dirty they did me.
You don't have to believe my story. I'm not asking you to. What I'm asking you to do is please get checked out regularly, trust your own gut and push for more of these conversations to be had. Because maybe if we had them more often, I wouldn't be another victim of my own body.
Gen Z of The Month ~Akhila Boda~ Akhila Boda is an eighteen-year-old gender equality activist and STEAMnist. In 2016, she co-founded Metro Girl Up club, a UN Foundation campaign club that advocates for female empowerment and girls’ education in third-world countries. When Akhila was young, she noticed gender disparities in India, most notably, her grandmothers who were married at fourteen. This observation sparked her interest in global gender equality and STEM education. In the past four years, her Girl Up club has raised over $12,000, which has helped re-enroll 122 girls in Guatemala, India, and Liberia. Akhila knows that with a platform like Girl Up, young girls have the opportunity to share unique stories and dream beyond the boundaries that they are confined to. Due to her work with Girl Up, Akhila has been named a 2020 Coca-Cola Scholar, a Prudential Spirit of Community Awards Ohio State Honoree, and a Syntero Catalyst for Positive Change Awards Recipient. Akhila is now studying Biomedical Science at The Ohio State University and knows that with the help of everyone, global gender equality is not a dream. It is a vision. @metrogirlup
@metrogirlup
Metro Girl Up Club
Advice for girls interested in STEAM or gender equality: Stay optimistic and don’t hesitate to reach out to people you look up to. It’s surprising to see how many people are willing to help and act as a mentor; all it takes is a simple message to get their attention. Additionally, make sure to take care of yourself both mentally and physically because it can get quite frustrating when you run into a roadblock. Definitely utilize brain breaks, eat healthily, occasionally relax by doing things you love (Netflix counts!), and stay organized. Additionally, I cannot stress this enough, but please, please, please DO NOT compare yourself to others. Imposter syndrome is a challenge that people face at some point, and while it is definitely easier said than done, realize that everyone has their own unique path to reach what is destined for them. Embrace what makes you, you!
Metro Girl Up Club is a UN Foundation Girl Up campaign that strives to eradicate gender inequality. As a part of our initiative, we host an annual Doughnut Dash, similar to a 5k. All the proceeds go to the UN Foundation and charity causes on behalf of Girl Up and raise money for school supplies and fees, girlsonly clubs for teen girls, health education information, and “stop child marriage” campaigns. Over the past four years, Metro Girl Up has raised $12,285.01 and the money has supported 122 girls in India, Liberia, Uganda, and Malawi; the girls were enrolled in a year-long program that helped build their social, health, and economic assets.
As a Futures Matter intern, Akhila studied bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in C3H mice under Dr. Rodney Britt, Ph.D. The freedom to design experiments, using laboratory techniques such as PCR and immunoblotting, based on previously conducted studies gave her the opportunity to recognize the impact of translational research. At the end of her biomedical research internship, she presented at the Summer Symposium at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
Through leadership from Metro Girl Up and a study abroad STEAM experience from the Women in Science (WiSci) camp hosted in Tbilisi, Georgia, Akhila has implemented STEAM workshops in her community as an Ohio Student Ambassador for a nonprofit known as ThinkSTEAM. Her workshops such as Slime Time and Microbit Programming, focused on coding and chemistry, have inspired 50+ K-8 girls in her community.
OUR NOVEMBER 2020 TEAM Thank you for your dedication and contribution!
LAUREN BYUN HEAD DIRECTOR
VY NGUYEN
AYMAN FATIMA
MAGAZINE COVER DESIGNER
NAINA GIRI
EVA EAPEN
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
CO-DIRECTORS OF WRITING
PATRICIA MERCADO
AMANI SMITH
WRITER
WRITER
WRITER
DEVIKA ROSHAN
ADRITA CHAKRABORTY
EDITOR
EDITOR
KATELYN HOWARD
HALIMA NASEER EDITOR
ANGIE VASQUEZ DESIGNER