"When a mother survives, a lot survives with her"

In December 2011, almost 2 years ago, I graduated with my Bachelor's degree in Public Health at Brigham Young University Idaho. I am crazy interested about health, nutrition, and exercise! But I also have a secret interest in Women's Health and more specifically Maternal Health.

"In the 20th Century, pregnancy and childbirth killed more than tuberculosis, suicide, traffic accidents, and AIDS, combined." -Safe the Mothers Organization

I often feel like maternal health is overlooked by other, 'bigger' diseases or accidents that are happening throughout the world. There is an organization in Uganda, Africa that I have been following for several years now, Save the Mothers. There mission is "to train local leaders in the developing world to reduce maternal mortality within their own countries. Such infrastructures will lead to changes in attitudes and result in women having better access to basic maternal services and medicine. When attitudes change and women are valued more, then lasting change will occur from the inside." They believe "that universal access to quality maternal care in pregnancy and childbirth is a basic human right." It is one of my dreams in life to become trained in this area of study (maternal health) and be able to help those in the developing world, because it truly is their basic human right to have adequate care.

There is a clinic that my husband and I live fairly close to right now in San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico. I pass by it almost every day as I walk to work and I have been in there several times for Yoga classes. In Chiapas, Maternal health is a huge issue as well. Many women get pregnant before they are ready, but since it is a cultural thing they don't really have much of a say as to whether they will get pregnant or not. In this culture men are not looked at as being real men until they have children, so as you can imagine young girls get pregnant at a very early age here and continue having kids for most of their life. This clinic has provided the necessary education to young teenagers and it has been very successful so far and will continue to help this community.

Today I came across a video that was posted by Save the Mothers Organization and I hope it will open your eyes to a little to what I see and hope will change in the developing countries. You can watch that video here. So many lives can be saved by such simple measures!

"I don't believe that we will make the progress on HIV/Aids without addressing maternal mortality. We will not make the progress we want on malaria without addressing maternal mortality. We will not make progress on getting more children to school without reducing maternal mortality. When a mother survives, a lot survives with her." - Sarah Brown, Safe Motherhood Advocate

Some Global Statistics:

• Of all pregnancies anywhere, 15 percent will have a potentially fatal complication. In the developing world, having a baby will be the riskiest thing a woman will do. Yet in most cases, mothers there deliver without any skilled attendant. 
• 1 in 4 women who die during childbirth simply bleed to death. This can often be prevented by a medication that costs less than 99 cents.
• The death of one mother often leaves a family of orphans. These children are more vulnerable to sickness and death. In addition, for every woman who dies in childbirth, about 20 women suffer injury, infection or disease-approximately 10 million women each year.
• Every year, some 287,000 women die from pregnancy-related causes. 99% of these deaths occur in the developing world.

*All statistics from the “Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 – 2010” report, UNFPA, UNICEF,WHO, World Bank.