U.S. Must Take Leadership to Make Mother's Day Every Day

There's a buzzword humming on Capitol Hill and it is coming up in discussions from economic development and microfinance, to U.S. safety and security, to population growth and global health. This buzzword -- women -- is by no means new. But a fresh look at the fundamental role women play in the physical, social and economic health of nations is about to bring a welcome new approach to U.S. policies toward women in the developing world.

In his column earlier this month, Nicholas Kristof made a simple yet powerful point -- the U.S. Senate is discovering women. His reference is not to the 17 women senators in the 111th Congress, but to global women's issues that after 30 years may finally gain traction in the U.S.

The creation of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy, and Global Women's Issues marks the first time ever that a Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee will have a clear focus on women's issues and is a historic step forward in U.S. policy toward women. Chaired by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the Subcommittee can restore respect for U.S. leadership and values and save millions of lives by placing women where they belong -- at the center of everything. And it starts with making sure that every woman, no matter where she lives, has the opportunity for a healthy pregnancy and safe childbirth.

This is why I and leading bipartisan voices will join two organizations at the forefront of this issue -- the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood and CARE -- to launch a groundbreaking new campaign to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of women and newborns around the world at risk during pregnancy and childbirth -- Mother's Day Every Day.

As groups working in the developing world already know, women -- and more specifically mothers -- are the key to overall global health, self-sufficiency, economic growth and peaceful sustainability. Mothers raise children and provide their families with income and food. They ensure that children are educated and receive the health care they need. In short, when mothers survive childbirth, they give birth to healthier families, communities and nations.

Survival is the key word here, because mothers can't help build and sustain thriving communities when they don't survive. And while progress is being made, childbirth remains the leading killer of young women worldwide taking more than 500,000 women's lives each year. Every minute somewhere in the world, a woman dies during pregnancy or childbirth. And for every mother who dies, 30 more are living with debilitating injuries which can leave them incapacitated, in chronic pain and even shunned from their communities.

Why should U.S. policymakers care when a mother dies in a village thousands of miles away? A mother's death has long-term implications, one of which is a continued cycle of poverty for her family and community. When a mother dies, enrollment in school for younger children is delayed and older children often leave school to support their family. Children without a mother are less likely to be immunized, and are more likely to suffer from malnutrition and stunted growth. And as families accrue expenses for medical interventions that came too late and that they cannot afford, communities take on the burden of caring for the bereaved and impoverished family.

Mother's Day Every Day calls for greater U.S. leadership to accelerate progress toward safe and healthy pregnancy and childbirth for all, and builds on the momentum generated in the House and Senate when both passed resolutions last year calling for the United States to make a stronger commitment to reduce maternal mortality at home and abroad. US investment in other global health priorities, including HIV and AIDS through the president's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), have been critical to increasing access to HIV prevention and treatment and improving the health of people around the world. The U.S. must also be a global leader on maternal health.

In many areas, a woman gives birth alone with no medical assistance. The vast majority of pregnancy-related deaths and injuries can be prevented with access to basic interventions -- like skilled care at birth and emergency obstetric care -- that have already been proven effective in the developing world.

Many women in the U.S. Congress, including Senators Olympia Snowe and Blanche Lincoln, and Representatives Lois Capps, Nita Lowey and Betty McCollum have been working to raise the visibility of these issues in the last year. As Senator Boxer takes on her new role as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy, and Global Women's Issues, there is no doubt that she will be an excellent champion for these issues. By expanding proven strategies, hundreds of thousands of women and newborns can lead healthy, empowering, inspiring lives. It begins with the United States leading the way in making Mother's Day Every Day.

Comments

[Nanaama]

Does this mean only the US has the wherewithall to solve everybody´s problems in the world? Poverty in the third world does not necessarily mean that the people are stupid and incapable of making decisions about their own future. If there was genuine fair trade, people in the third world can afford to acquire all that they need to develop their countries, providing education ,health care and all the necessary modern infrastructure for further development. And by the way, this will include the male population as well and not only women are important in the planning and raising of families.

[MadeinAmericaProud]

Agree with your first quest.

I'm in my 60, I have been asking this question since I was in high school back in the 60's.
The National Interest, sound very much like dictators or bully to our own people in America.
We (Republicans)take taxpayers' money to spend it wherever in the world we want except in poor communities in American.

We start wars and use the poor people in America to fight the wars against even poorer people in other countries.

Those in Authority or political positions male or female should use that opportunity to speak up to all Americans to stress the important of our own well being before going overseas.

[wagadog]

Thank you very much, Donna Shalala, for all of the things you have done throughout the years on behalf of women, whether they choose to be scientists, engineers, mothers, or even some combination of those professions.

You have described here the economic worth of unpaid womens' work, in such a way that it should be possible to actually calculate the ongoing impact on our economy allowing women to suffer so.

And now, on to the impact on our economy of cutting full half the talent pool out of certain scientific, engineering and technology disciplines: the women whose jobs disappeared moments within hours after they asked for maternity leave; the women who were told that their grants--based on their own research results--would be handed to men several years their junior, and then asked when they would be having children; the still-childless women who left their field of study after failing to make the transition from postdoc to faculty and whose PhD advisors have told everyone in their field that they "left science to have kids."

If all three of these things have happened to me, how many other female scientists has this happened to? And what is the impact on the economy of this level of discrimination? And if childless women with PhDs in the hard sciences are treated like this, what kind of treatment can uneducated women with children expect? Scary.

I honestly wish that you had been chosen as Obama's top economic advisor, Donna.

[demfriend]

Our health systems failure here in the US is shown in black and white numbers without fail when the mortality numbers for infants is shown to be one of the worst in the world. SOme third world countries might unde report which might bring us up a slot or two but still we have to do what must be done to bring those numbers down. The media has again failed when they do not show how bad the numbers are now with so many jobs lost the numbers are growing. The media should show the straving children here in the US. The numbrs of kids living under the poverty line and the numbers without health insurance. Those numbers plus all of the others that show pregnant women not getting pre natal care would shock the nation andyet where are they? Yes we all know about the broken health systems but the numbers should be out for everyone to face and for those refusing the stimulus monies to respond to and how they intend to do something about these things while denying hope and help.

[luziannagirl]

For those concerned about encouraging population explosion in an already overburdened and overcrowded planet---it's been proven that the more women are educated and financially self-sustaining, the fewer children they bear.

When a woman's only worth is being a housekeeper, cook, child-bearer and child-rearer, and she's totally dependent on her man for her entire existence, saying "no" to bearing more children is quite difficult if not impossible. If she's a major breadwinner if not the only breadwinner, even her man can see that saddling her with excessive childbearing and child-raising subtracts from the family's total economic health, wealth, and ability to care for everyone---including him--- adequately.

[firstfreeze]

Who said money is everything. The pursuit of wealth is a sad measure of a life. We have aborted away millions of potential workers in this country. Let's protect mothers and their children (from the moment of conception)

[MitchW]

Money isnt everything - but bringing up a child in poverty is unnecessary, stupid and selfish on the part of the mother. If you cant afford food, heathcare, saving for future college ,do everyone a favor and dont have that child. And by the way - you view a child only in terms of "future worker"? How truly sad.

[luziannagirl]

Thank you, Ms. Shalala.

Groups like The Heifer Project have learned that empowering women is THE key to helping families, communities, societies and countries plagued by abject poverty, pull themselves up. Not providing aide to governments, community leaders, individual (usually male) heads-of-households, but to women. Individual female citizens. That's what works.

They've discovered, by trial and error, that when they give a man a cow, what doesn't become steak and burgers immediately often gets sold for a pocketful of change. That money then finances his night/week/month on the town gambling, drinking, fighting, visiting houses of ill repute. If his wife and mother of his children is lucky, maybe he will be too drunk or too absent to beat her, and maybe she can make a couple of pots of soup for the family with any leftover bones.

Give a mother a cow, and the milk, cream, butter, buttermilk, and cheese nourish the entire family for years. The cow can be bred and the calves can either be sold each year for extra money, or they can begin to build a herd. Eventually, that cow may become the start of a small business which not only sustains the family, but contributes to the building of the entire community's economy.

Empowering the world's poor women should be common ground for those in all political corners.

[MitchW]

Give a mother a cow, and the milk, cream, butter, buttermilk ...AND Birthcontrol (you avoid the problem entirely).

[dreame]

Certainly pregnant women across the globe need to be cared for so they can safely deliver. However, this needs to be balanced with access to health education and birth control resources. Overpopulation in areas of famine is a huge problem. We already have too large a population to sustain indefinitely on this planet unless some major changes in how we deal with our food production and pollution are changed immediately. I wouldn't suggest imposing limits on family size like they do in China, but people need to stop trying to legislate against preventitive measures for population control.

[latoscana]

The enormity of one death per minute hits hard. When I had my daughter, I had dilated only 5 cm after 38 hours of labor. I agreed to a C-section when I heard "You are fine now. Your baby is fine now. But we can't assure you that situation will continue." We're all still fine now, 21 years later, but I know that in another time and place, my daughter and I would have been casualties of "complications of childbirth." For anyone who cares about children and maternal health, this is truly a defining issue.

[Tyler-Durden]

sorry! birth control first! stop having babies, stop creating new mothers! teach the people to be self sustaining by not overpopulating!

BIRTH CONTROL IS THE NUMBER ONE PRIORITY FOR THE PLANET. stop reproducing like rabbits!

[firstfreeze]

you may like reproducing like rabbits if you tried it

[AnnAnn]

I'm a great admirer of Donna Shalala and am delighted to see her posting on Huff Post. She is right when she says, "As groups working in the developing world already know, women -- and more specifically mothers -- are the key to overall global health, self-sufficiency, economic growth and peaceful sustainability. Mothers raise children and provide their families with income and food. They ensure that children are educated and receive the health care they need. In short, when mothers survive childbirth, they give birth to healthier families, communities and nations."
Obviously, many of us consider that access to birth control and abortion are essential to women's health but these interventions are hot-button issues for many people. By excluding them from her discussion, Professor Shalala is honing in on an issue on which ALL women should agree.

[MadeinAmericaProud]

There are more billionaires in other countries than in American now.

Our taxes through foreign aid proving food and education,plus the American large Corps, using our tax breaks to take our jobs to other countries for cheaper labors, your message is not going over very well with me today.

American women have more power over their lives because white women for years finely won their demands. (voting rights, abortion rights and leaving the homes and demanding jobs years ago)

It has changed life in America forever. There is no more (1) worker bring home the bacon worker.
The bored housewives of yesteryear wanted to get out of the house to work, which changed the cost of doing business in American with one household earning two check.s. Now we have to work, yet the jobs have left the country.

The mother's sons are now going up to jack@$$.
Americans have self destruct. The greed and selfishness of the country's people only know how buy junk and create wars to sell the only product we have left. WEAPONS.

[pm247]

Time to stop the notion that giving birth is "empowering" to women. It should be seen as immoral to have children that cannot be provided for. A program which brings that message (along with birth control access) would be truly humanitarian.

[MitchW]

Well said!

[dgscol]

The better solution to global population is birth control. It would be better to impose by law, birth control measures, than to induce migration and civil strife through social upheaval in these regions where the environment cannot support their population. Food and medicine just increases the problem, if it is received w/o population control measures.

This is the same reason that it is sensible to keep oil prices low, to keep Middle East populations from the effects from the expansions and contractions of their economy. Ninety percent of the population there is supported by oil, and ... you can't eat oil. Ask Saddam Hussein.

[Dredd]

Where there is a dying or suffering child there is a grieving mother.

Help the grieving mothers:

http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2009/01/death-mostly-ignored.html

[schatsie]

Help the grieving fathers and siblings, a baby is not born just from a mother to a mother....

Help the parent who mourn the death of hope for their children, every parent like that British politician...the death of hope from developmental disorders. disabilities and autism.

Donna, great to see an article from you.

[MadeinAmericaProud]

I can not trust any organization begging for money. When we have given involuntary for years through our taxes aid.

Again, there are more billionaires in these countries thanks to American voters.

[dgscol]

I liked Alan Cranston better than these little Queen Bees. You know, Donna is not even a mother.
we should worry first about health care in the US, before worrying about increasing the birthrate in Africa.
Isn't that common sense? How can we afford global health care, or even consider it, when 50% of our own population lacks insurance?

Perhaps these ladies aspire to be like the Feinsteins, selling modernism to foreign countries and luring them with tales of health care improvements. I say, we need to ignore poorly planned adventures abroad, and need to focus on the US. Ladies, when we have cleaned our own house, we can go and clean those of others.

[schatsie]

HOW can you live in your little niche and ignore everyone else.....I guess you would not have favored the CLEAN Water that prevented CHOLERA....or the polio vaccine or antibiotics etc...

How can we celebrate Christmas when 30 million children die of poverty each and every year.. Can you imagine the devastation to those families?

[dgscol]

I am all for enhancements to the environment that makes it more habitable. I am against the simple program like Sudan during the Clinton Admin, where money is allocated and food is brought in. and the environment there does not support life. This food, creates a later dire struggle for existence often leading to warfare and death.

I also believe that Making the US robust is the best way to assist these foreign countries. Wrecking the US just kills all the values we possess - love of liberty, belief in freedom,
nonacceptance of slavery and intolerable work conditions, and democracy.

Without trying to be flippant - the famine in the former USSR hardly effected women and their children, but ... reduced the male population 50%, mainly from civil distress and violent clashes..

[MadeinAmericaProud]

If more American looked at their Public Broadcasting Stations (PBS) and supported them. They you be more informed Americans.

I saw last year on PBS, all the countries with universal health care "We the People in America" help pay for it. The American pharmaceutical companies raise the cost here to make the profits from the profits they don't get in those other countries.

We the people are paying to make the pay for TV rich who are keeping us dumb and dumber.

[noralou]

Another thing we could provide would be birth control. In way too many parts of the world, women have no control over their own bodies. Pregnancy and childbirth are often dangerous to a woman's health and or life. As a last resort women should be able to get an abortion. (man won't use condom, woman gets raped, etc.) In a dangerous pregnancy the mother's welfare should come first. She is already alive and most likely has other children to care for. The right to lifers stand up and howl at the idea of providing abortions. We had a slogan we chanted during our pro-choice rallies: "Right to life, that's a lie, you don't care if women die".
Too often it is men that make these decisions about a woman's body and how it is used and sometimes abused. The minute men can get pregnant is about the time that they should be in charge of these things.

[Pupadup4oBama]

BRAVO!!! However, not only should contraception and abortion be available...but education is a MUST.

[noralou]

Yes, education is a must. It is strange that by and large the right-to-lifers also oppose sex education. I guess you can't keep us barefoot and pregnant if we know how to prevent it! Terry Randall (creator of "Operation Rescue") when pressed, admitted that he was also against birth control. I guess if a woman dares to have sex, he believes there should be consequences.

[MadeinAmericaProud]

There are hundreds of educated people all over the world. Our taxes paid for that education years ago. The educated in those countries should be educating their own by now.

Why are we so foolish to think, we need to provide more money to support these people?

If we truly believe in human rights, why do we have abuse by our own police force beating a teenage girl on this website. There are millions in jail. Creating prison jobs by abusing the poor people here, why sending valid jobs to other countries, we need to educate ourselves to what is happening in our own country.