Every year when February 14th rolls around, I search within for a real connection to the symbol of this over commercialized event we call Valentine's Day. Sure it's a nice gesture to send cards and love notes to our loved ones but that certainly doesn't and shouldn't limit us from doing so whenever the urge strikes, and it strikes a lot in my home.
My family knows they are loved. As a mother, it is my job to let them know that they are and it's a job I take quite seriously. So, since I know my immediate family is all covered, I challenge myself to look outside my own circle. Have you ever wondered what happens to families without mothers on these sorts of holidays? I do. I think about those families a lot as a global maternal health advocate and founder of Every Mother Counts.
In the years since I first became a mom, I've been spending a lot of time advocating for improved maternal health. And often, especially at global health conferences and or the like, we get caught up in statistics of the associated morbidities and mortalities, or 'near misses' as they have become known in countries where we have gotten quite good at saving lives. But when I pause to think about those families without their moms on Valentine's Day, that's when I get the chance to really think about what those statistics imply for the world as a whole.
Yes, you may have heard me say this before, that 1000 women die every day due to complications caused from pregnancy or childbirth and this is a figure that just doesn't sit well with me for a number of reasons. These 1000 women I so often refer to don't sit in a vacuum alone. Every year, more than 1 million children are left motherless and vulnerable because of maternal deaths, and children who have lost their mothers are up to 10 times more likely to die prematurely than those who have not. Children who have their mothers are more likely to get vaccinated and more likely to get an education. Implications for girls tend to be exacerbated, leading to a continued cycle of poverty and poor health after her mother dies.
While maternal deaths happen all over the world, the large majority of them take place in the developing world. In fact, 66% occur in ten countries. In 2000, the United Nations established the Millennium Development Goals as an effort to eradicate global poverty by identifying eight of the world's biggest development challenges.
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health and reduce maternal mortality
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development
MDG 5 is often referred to as the heart of the Millennium Development Goals because of the innate centrality of a mother in her family and community. If mom is healthy, then her child is more likely to thrive, more likely to have a better quality of life and, ultimately, better able to provide for his or herself. A mother who is able will do all she can to nurture and support her children. Yet, somehow, this is the MDG that has continued to lack support to put it on track to achieve its goals by 2015. Some countries have made the health of mothers and children a priority, and in those countries, there has been considerable progress which goes to show that political will does make a difference.
So today, on this day symbolized with a heart, let's think of our mothers and as mothers, the direct impact of our good health on those we love.
Happy Valentine's Day.
Visit Christy's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/everymothercounts.
Follow Christy Turlington Burns on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@CTurlington
Soraya Chemaly: No Mother's Day: Every 90 Seconds a Woman Dies Becoming a Mother
The US has slipped way down to rank 44 in the world!
Empower women?
Women are not yet receiving equal pay, 40 years later...
You want kids to thrive, eh?
Americans need to wake up to controversies being stifled and suppressed, the use of WAY too many vaccines before the age of 1, and then maiming and killing young teens with Gardasil shots.
US-backed drugcare efforts have been killing and maiming kids in Africa with similar vaccine protocols.
Vaccines routinely damage the immune systems (the gut) for most kids whose parents compliantly follow orders to have their children immunized instead of having their kids develop strong immune systems. Several vaccines may be necessary and desirable, however, what we have today is overkill, a crock of lies, pandering to fears of parents while lining the pockets of Big Pharma.
If you want to help, this curtain needs to be lifted to show the outbreak of autism and a host of other allergies caused by repeatedly shooting small kids up with toxic mercury.
For those already dependent on epi-pens, mainstream medicine doesn't even recognize their responsibility in this matter.
For parents dealing with sudden onset of autism after receiving shots, answers are there...not from the mainstream.
Please do not take my word on this, do your own research!
Then contact your legislators and representatives, this is an election year.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/01/04/us-mmr-autism-idUSTRE60330220100104
I have a three year-old son who has yet to get the MMR vaccine because yes I agree that subjecting our infants bodies with multiple vaccines all at once is extreme. So I personally have been very cautious and am spreading out the ones I believe are important. I think we should all have the ability to control how and what we give our kids at the advice of our trusted pediatricians.
The diseases we immunize against here are still the biggest causes of child deaths in developing countries. Nelson Mandela has said that every child in Africa should have access to the vaccines so freely available here.
As a responsible parent, I made sure my children were fully immunized, not only to protect them but to protect the all children around them.
There appears to be an administrative under-reporting of side effects and even deaths attributed to them.
Years ago, the US was at a high point of low infant mortality, and there were only a few vaccines used. Today, the opposite is true.
Realize the US Government indemnified all vaccine makers from any reprisals from their products, so if you are injured or die, you or your heirs will now need to sue the US Government. Where is that urgency to thoroughly test anything? Gone with the indemnification.
People getting simple flu shots are having all kinds of adverse reactions, even dying from the shots, but you will not hear this from mainstream media. And they give no advance warning of adverse reactions.
And if you research this before you mouth off, you will find way more on this topic than this brief reply.
You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity but you can help them to get off to a good start, by making sure they have the right nourishment before birth and after they are born. WIC(women,infants and children) used to help the nourishment. I don't know what they have done to the program. It is probably in danger now.
You can legislate access to preschools that will stimulate their minds and teach them to interact. You can make sure they have their minds stimulated with exposure to field trips, library visits and even TV, You can help in the upkeep of the public parks with playground equipment.
Those who earn enough should all pay a small tax percentage to help the poor. We will save money in the long run because we won't have as many in prison that are paid for by the taxpayers.
Right now the poor and the middle class need opportunitÂy not austerity. If they can get a decent job some will become prosperous and pay taxes.
The wealthy who don’t want to pay their fair share of taxes became rich under higher taxation and with higher amounts going to help the poor.
I have been writing to media types to try and find a place to use my experience and voice t make a difference in the world for all of the (1 in 3 ) women on the planet living in silence, fear and shame behind closed doors because of verbal and physical abuse....that is over 52 miliion women just in the U.S. This abuse affects all areas of our society. The U.S. spends $124 billion on abused and neglected children. This is a pandemic.
I was one of those women (but never quiet about it) for 36 years; then got a divorce (voted out of membership in my church, I stood up once again and fought spiritual abuse: www.churchabusepoetrytherapy.com...for all of the women abused by that pastor and suicidal......, now advocating for women and children, as moderator of an abused survivors' group.
I feel driven to make a difference. I would like to be on National Television, so that i could reach a larger audience. I would like to make a documentary entitled: The Silent Scream....without knowledge we are helpless, and the recursive cycle...continues.
Perhaps you might have a suggestion.
Kindest Regards, Alice