The Girl Effect – Why 500,000 New Moms Dying a Year Is Not Bad News

Imagine you’re walking on a washed-out, deeply rutted dirt road. There is no motor traffic because the constant rains have made the road impassable for months.  The sun is blazing hot, and you haven’t had anything to drink for hours.

You’re pregnant, in labor and in terrible pain. You live where there’s no doctor, no pain medicine, and no one can help. Your only hope is a clinic, still many hours away by foot. You know the clinic is rarely staffed, and you wonder if you’ll walk all that way for nothing.

The pain gets worse and you’re afraid your baby could die, you’re afraid you could die…and then you think of your precious 2-year old daughter. If you die, she will have no one.

Sounds like a nightmare, doesn’t it?

That’s not just my idea of a nightmare, it’s what actually happened to Celia.

In June of 2002 I led a maternal child health program for Doctors Without Borders in the mountain villages of southwest Mexico. One day I was brought to Celia’s one-room, tin-roofed home. She was lying on a small cot and said she didn’t feel well. I learned that she had given birth 8 days earlier.

Celia was 17 years old, and she had one other child. Her first birth had been unproblematic. But this time, even though her labor started in the evening and the contractions became stronger all night, there had been no signs of progress.

In the morning her family and her partero (a male midwife) realized something was wrong and decided to seek help in the closest town with a medical clinic. This meant a 7-8 hour walk, likely followed by a 4-5 hour drive to the only regional hospital.

After almost an hour of walking they realized that the road was in too poor a condition to be passable. Discouraged and in great pain, Celia decided to turn back.

Could Celia’s Story Have Been Different?

Once back in her home the partero again tried to facilitate the birth of the baby. When that did not work and the contractions seemed to diminish, he decided to give her an injection to stimulate the uterus.

About 10 minutes later the baby’s head came out and although the baby was alive, the rest of the body was stuck. The partero tried everything he could but ultimately the baby died, and this male midwife was driven to use great force to pull the baby out.

When I examined Celia, signs pointed to a uterine infection, and I gave her an antibiotic. I visited her several times a day for the week we were in her village, and every day we talked about her loss and grief. Even so, her 2-year-old daughter was the source of much joy for both of us. By the time we left, her vital signs were normal and she said she felt much better.

I’ll always remember Celia and wish the outcome of her second pregnancy had been different. With better access to care, I have no doubt her story would have been.

 

How to Re-Write the Story

 

If you had met Celia in the throes of labor as she made her way up that dusty road in Mexico, I have no doubt you would have done everything in your power to help. You would count yourself grateful for the opportunity.

But here’s the thing: every minute, somewhere in the world, another woman experiences Celia’s nightmare. But unlike Celia, she doesn’t live through it. Five hundred thousand women a year die from pregnancy-related causes.

The lifetime risk of maternal death is one thousand times higher in a poor country, like Mexico, than in the United States. Unfortunately these numbers are not galvanizing but overwhelming. That’s not surprising: studies have shown again and again that statistics like these have a dulling effect.

They lead to a sense of futility and despair. People hear them and think, “What difference can I really make?” But the good news is that the same studies that have shown how statistics overwhelm people have shown that individual stories move people to act.

That’s because stories make you think twice about something as huge as entrenched poverty and global maternal health.  When you learn about the stories in the context of what people are doing about them, you don’t feel helpless, nor doubt that you could make a difference. You feel hope.

Consider The Girl Effect

The Girl Effect is a movement that focuses on the lives of girls in developing countries in order to address the root causes of broader societal problems.

Studies show that girls who have more education have better outcomes — not only for themselves but also for their families, their communities and the world. It’s no exaggeration to say that everything within a community changes when you give a girl access to education.

Every bit of existing research suggests that making an investment in education for girls will have a very, very far reach.

 

When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children.

Also, studies show that the more schooling a girl the healthier her babies and children will be.

Celia had no school education, and it’s unlikely that her daughter, or any of her children, will have access to education either. Unless, of course, something changes. Unless we do something to help.

What You Can Do

 

1) Read other Girl Effect posts on this page.

2) Write your own Girl Effect post and help spread the message. You can post anytime during the week of October 4-11.

3) Donate. Send a girl to school. Give her a microloan. Start the Girl Effect. Just go here.

Light A Candle

Yes, 500,000 new moms die a year. But that’s not bad news, that’s reality. The bad news is that you feel despondent in the face of that reality.

I know the problems of the world seem overwhelming, and I struggle with hopelessness, too. But then I remember a quote I heard a long time ago (so long ago I don’t know who to attribute it to, and a Google search revealed nothing), “If we all lit a candle, there would be a tremendous light.”

This week, in honor of Tara Mohr’s Girl Effect Blogging Campaign and my 42nd birthday on Wednesday, October 5th, I’m lighting a candle by giving to The Girl Effect.

If you decide to give, please leave a comment letting me know how much you donated, and I will match that amount up to $420.

My birthday wish is that 42 friends will give $10, and we will raise $840!

Postscript: I asked my friends to give, with the promise to match every gift up to $420, and. . . THEY GAVE BIG! WE RAISED OVER $1,200 TO CHANGE THE LIVES OF GIRLS ALL OVER THE WORLD! If that isn’t a cause for celebration, I don’t know what is!

If you liked this post, I think you’ll enjoy the free weekly Special Delivery eZine. Just sign up here and it will delivered to your inbox every Tuesday.