Throughout the world maternal health is a key concern due to its drastic connections and effects on education as well as a country’s overall sustainability and economic development. Nowhere are the negative impacts of prenatal care access felt, than in the developing world. According to the World Health Organization, each day 800 women die while or after giving childbirth and 99% of those deaths occur in developing countries. These deaths generally occur because of severe bleeding (mainly bleeding after birth), infections (mainly after birth) and high blood pressure during the prenatal months. The factors leading to these avoidable deaths are poverty, lack of access to health care, lack of education and cultural practices. Maternal mortality rates are one of the peak indicators of a wealthy nation versus a poor nation and without increasing the health of mothers a nation has little hope to provide proper education and growth.
The paradox is that without healthy mothers and children a country cannot grow economically, and without economic development a country cannot properly provide the education and health care that mothers and children need. Due to this the United Nations has prioritized maternal health as one of their millennium development goals. By providing reproductive care to everyone, the drastic effects of poor maternal health can be avoided and then the children can be properly cared for by healthy mothers who then can help the children gain access to education. With healthy children and mothers being educated the developing countries can have the chance to a brighter future through positively impacting the country’s economic needs and social advancement.
Givology’s belief “that education is the single most important and sustainable resource for individual empowerment, community advancement, and poverty alleviation” collaborates with the need to increase the levels of maternal health across the globe. Without healthy mothers, children will not be encouraged to pursue education and break the destructive cycle of poverty. Organizations partnered with Givology like Emerge and Global Peace Exchange seek to increase maternal health through education, economic advancement and health services. Givology and Emerges’ efforts to [i]Empower Teen Survivors of Abuse with Education[/i] in Sri Lanka has given young expecting mothers the opportunity to learn jewelry making, then use it to build a healthy life that helps them grow out of poverty and support their child. Additionally, Givology and the Global Peace Exchange are partnered together to provide proper medical services and health education to children and adults in Entebbe, Uganda through the [i]Bright Kids Uganda Community Health Empowerment[/i] project. This project seeks not only facilitate proper health services, but also to provide education in order to make the medical services sustainable. These examples highlight the efforts of Givology to help combat poor maternal health through education, healthcare and economic advancement because without education and economic development, maternal health has little chance to be advanced in the developing world.
[b]For more information:[/b]
[url=http://www.unicef.org/sowc04/sowc04_maternal_health.html]UNICEF - The State of the World's Children[/url]
[url=http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/the-impact-maternal-mortality-and-morbidity-economic-development]Wilson Center -The Impact of Maternal Mortality and Morbidity on Economic Development[/url]
[url=http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/maternal.shtml]United Nations Millennium Development Goals[/url]
[url=http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs348/en/index.html]WHO - Maternal Mortality Fact Sheet[/url]
[b][url=http://www.givology.com/giv-now/][i]Donate to a Givology student/project! [/i][/url][/b]
26 FEB 2013