'Scandalous lack of care' kills 600,000 women
ABOUT 600,000 women die annually due to a "scandalous
lack of effective care during pregnancy and labour" Dr Cathy
Lennon, of MaterCare International, has told a Sydney Catholic
Women's League luncheon.
Support of aid organisations such as MaterCare, however, can help
prevent this shocking mortality rate, she said.
MaterCare International, introduced to Australia in 1999, is
committed to helping mothers and babies in the Third World by
providing medicine and life - saving equipment, as well as
training for midwives and doctors.
Catholic Women's League Australia has been supporting
MaterCare through a national fundraising project, Mothers and
Daughters in Action.
Dr Lennon spoke about the severe complications affecting mothers
in the Third World.
"The risk of a mother dying as a direct cause of pregnancy
in labour in Africa is one in 13. The risk in neighbouring East
Timor is one in 20," she said.
"Most of these women die in terror from haemorrhage or in
agony from an obstructed labour." Often those who don't
die suffer long - term damage to their health, such as an
obstetric fistula, Dr Lennon said.
Obstetric fistulae occur in very young mothers as a result of
neglected obstructed labour.
As well as the baby dying, it results in the mother becoming
incontinent due to bladder damage, causing her to become a social
outcast.
"The pain, humiliation and lifelong debility that these
women suffer is really incredible. There are tens of thousands of
these poor, young, forgotten mothers throughout Africa,"
said Dr Lennon.
"The tragedy is most of this mortality and morbidity is
preventable with proper maternity care."
MaterCare, through its international organisation of health
professionals, is working to overcome such tragedy through crisis
intervention, education, research and advocacy. Dr Lennon said it
was also "trying to give skills to the local doctors and
nurses for the long term." To find out more about MaterCare
International visit www.matercare.org
Story Source:
Catholic Weekly 6 May, 2007
