Maternal Mortality

Yesterday our 6th grandchild was born in a well-equipped maternity hospital with skilled professional care. She and her mother are healthy and well. In Britain now it is rare for a mother to die from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. According to Christian Aid's 'Count Your Blessings' Lent calendar the rate is about one death for every 8,000 children born.


I mentioned in Save Mothers to Save the World that I narrowly escaped being one of the 1 in 8,000. It was not always the case here. Maternal death rates used to be much higher. I've found several examples in researching my family tree. For example, my great grandfather John's first wife died a few days after giving birth to their first baby. They'd only been married 10 months.


In Somalia, for every 80 children born, one of their mothers will die from causes connected with the pregnancy. This is one of the highest rates in the world.


Christian Aid suggests giving 20p for every child you are related to, so once again I have to decide how big to draw the family circle. I'll think I'll restrict it to our own (grown-up) 3 children and our 6 grandchildren. So that's £1.80p.

Image: photo of a sculpure by Henry Moore: morgueFile