The State of the World's Children

The flagship publication of UNICEF is The State of the World's Children. The 2009 report emphasizes maternal mortality.

"The difference in pregnancy risk between women in developing countries and their peers in the industrialized world is often termed the greatest health divide in the world.

"A woman in Niger has a one in seven chance of dying during the course of her lifetime from complications during pregnancy or delivery. That's in stark contrast to the risk for mothers in America, where it's one in 4,800 or in Ireland, where it's just one in 48,000."

Comment: Why is maternal mortality in the United States 10 times worse than maternal mortality in Ireland? Surely part of the difference is due to the inequity of the American system in which many poor women do not have health insurance, do not receive adequate health education, feel diffident about obtaining health services, and as a result don't get the services that would keep them healthy during pregnancy and help them to survive its perils.

The reason that women in Niger and other poor countries face death so much more frequently due to pregnancy is clearly moral failing of the people of the world. It would not take much to save those lives, but we don't care enough to make the resources available! JAD

Here is a link to the UNICEF Childinfo website with lots of information about the welfare of children of the world.