The Risks of Birth

 

 

 
We have overlaid the story of Jesus' birth with so much spiritual meaning and a generous dollop of sentimentality to such an extent that we might forget the minor miracle of his survival in such miserable surroundings. A stall for animals is not to be recommended as a birthing centre.  Infant and maternal mortality has been a scourge for centuries. Visit cemeteries in this country and look at graves from the turn of the last century to see how grimly true this is.

A report by the charity Save the Children points out that being born is still dangerous from the moment a child emerges into this life.  As you can see below, one million babies die on the first day of life every year. Needless to say Western countries are far safer than areas such as Sub-Saharan Africa, although Canada ranks an unsettling twenty second on the list (Finland ranks first.) More troubling are the statistics for First Nations in Canada which are  sadly parallel with a number of developing countries.

My thought is that we can make the connection between issues of maternal and infant health and our Mother and Child story to motivate us toward practical compassion. The encouraging news is that infant mortality rates are dropping, and fewer mothers die in childbirth. A million first-day deaths certainly proves that the need for better care still exists.

Your thoughts and musings?

Surviving the First Day: State of the World’s Mothers 2013

This year’s State of the World’s Mothers report shows which countries are succeeding – and which are failing – in saving the lives of mothers and their newborn babies. The key take away? More than 1 million babies die on the first day of life – making the birth day the most dangerous day for babies in nearly every country, rich and poor alike.

6.9 million		287,000		3 million
That’s how many children under 5 die each year... a decrease of over 40% since 12 million died in 1990.		From 543,000 maternal deaths in 1990 to 287,000 in 2011, that’s a decline of almost 50%.		In 2011, 3 million babies died in their first month of life. This is 43 percent of all deaths of children under age 5 worldwide. Three-quarters of those newborns died in the first week of their lives, and one-third did not survive their first day of life.