around the world, mother's day is a call to action

[niyad]

Around the World, Mother’s Day is a Call to Action

Becoming a mother was not the blissed-out, exhilarating experience I thought it would be. It was painful, scary, and the only time I have ever felt truly out-of-control. When I went to the hospital, I was expecting an “easy” birth. My pregnancy had not been particularly difficult, and I was slated to deliver in the hospital’s birthing center—but
then, there were complications. Ultimately, I had an emergency cesarean-section. I have only the faintest memory of my daughter’s entrance into the world. I didn’t hold her on my chest after hearing her first cries. I don’t even remember her first cries. And I didn’t bond with her after her birth—she went one way, and I went another.
To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. But here’s the thing: becoming a mother didn’t cost me my life. Not even close. There was never any danger of that. And it didn’t cost my daughter hers either. She went to the NICU and was attended to by an expert team of doctors and nurses.

Some moms aren't so lucky. Around the world, one woman dies every two minutes from complications in pregnancy and childbirth—almost 800 moms every day. Ninety-nine percent of these deaths occur in the developing world, with about one-half occurring in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. And millions more women suffer from injury, infection, or disease during pregnancy or childbirth.

The shocking thing? The vast majority of maternal death and injury is preventable.
The common causes of maternal death are well known: severe bleeding during or after childbirth; hypertension, or high blood pressure, during pregnancy; sepsis and infections; prolonged or obstructed labor; and unsafe abortion. Effective, life-saving, interventions exist for all of these causes—but for many women, lack of access to quality reproductive and maternal health care quite literally means death.

Afghanistan once had the highest maternal mortality ratio in the world, with estimates as high as 1800 deaths per 100,000 live births. Although still unacceptably high, the latest survey of maternal death in Afghanistan shows a steep decline to 327 deaths per 100,000 live births, though this number may be as high as 500 deaths per 100,000 live births given survey restraints. Several factors contributed to this drop, including increases in antenatal care and assisted deliveries, made possible by increases in the number of health facilities and the number of trained midwives, which has more than tripled since 2002. The Feminist Majority Foundation (publisher of Ms.) was involved in the efforts to train and mobilize more midwives in Afghanistan, and we did that because we knew it would save lives.

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http://msmagazine.com/blog/2014/05/12/around-the-world-mothers-day-is-a-call-to-action/