Mothers for other mothers: please help all you can this Mothers Day

Natasha Kaplinksy, one of the supporters of the Missing Midwives campaign

I really wish you could have been in the room with me yesterday.

I attended Save the Children's press conference for the launch of its Missing Midwives report, a report that highlights the discrepancies around the world in something so natural as childbirth and the deaths that occur, simply by not having the necessary healthcare or education available.

I know this subject is "off topic" for a blog that normally discusses waste, but poverty is another issue about which I am very passonate and I believe that in many ways the subjects are connected simply through the imbalances that exist between the wealth of developed countries and the poverty of the under-developed world.  Yesterday's event certainly highlighted these contrasts.

Just before the press conference started, I had an unexpected opportunity to interview broadcast journalist Natasha Kaplinksy, who is one of the high profile supporters adding their voice to the campaign.  I asked her to tell me more about the issues and what ordinary people like me can do.

Natasha began by introducing the most appalliing statistic that around the word 1000 women and 2000 babies die every single day, for what she describes as "for just the want of a bit of extra bit help".  She went on to highlight the fact that at birth, there exists the greatest contrast between the developed and under-developed world in that just 1% of women in the uk give birth alone compared to 94% in countries such as Ethiopia.  Perhaps the most startling statistic of all was that in Rwanda 400,000 babies born every year yet there are only 46 midwives across the whole country.  By contrast in the UK there are 26,825 working midwives helping to support 749,000 births per annum. Now that's a statistic that makes me feel lucky.



As a mother of  two children delivered safely by health professionals in the UK, of which one was a very long and complex birth, I can't even imagine what it must be like facing childbirth without any medical support.  However, having attended yesterday's conference, I can now see how something that is such a joyous occasion for many women and their families could easily be described as a death sentence for many more.  And experts such as the Royal College of Midwives' Frances Day-Stirk, are calling for action and education to make more midwives and healthcare professionals available worldwide and to tackle the Millennium Development Goals that are committed to reducing both child and maternal mortality

Frances Day-Stirk, Vice-President of the International Confederation of Midwives

and Director of Learning, Royal College of Midwives.

 
The message that came through yesterday, which was really loud and clear, was that the solutions that need to be put in place aren't complex and as a global society we can make a difference.

Justin Forsyth, Chief Executive of Save the Children UK said,

“We are calling on rich and poor country governments to put health workers at the heart of their plans. World leaders pledged to do just that last year, but now they need to deliver the funds and political will to support this pledge. Without it, mums and babies will continue to die needlessly every day.”

As I listened to the tales of those who had visited some of the countries that need help, I could understand how such action could make a real impact, whether it's training more midwives to help with births or providing mothers with home-birth kits that include something simple as a sterilised razor blade to cut their own umbilical chord without risk of infection.  Yes, many new mothers really have to do such a thing and a clean blade can make a huge difference to reducing the child and maternal mortality rates.

Justin Forsyth, CEO Save the Children, Natasha Kaplinsky, Dervla Kirwan and Midwife Suzanne 

describe their visits to affected countries that need better healthcare provision.

Returning to my initial interview with Natasha Kaplinksy, as our family puts in place arrangements to celebrate Mothers Day tomorrow, its her words that strike a real chord with how that fits into our global society. And that's "That we remember how lucky we are and that we can make a difference. We can all make a difference, by making small changes to our lives we can save other people's lives.  It's such a small thing they need."


She also added, "The statistics blur the reality because they are so huge, but if we think about helping one person at a time, that really does make a difference. We just need to remember that a mother in any of those countries loves their child as much as we do and every mother wants the best for their child".

And that's what really caught in my throat. I can't speak for anyone else, but when I see those awful images on TV, I just see tragic pictures of suffering that's so immense it seems beyond our control and so far away.  However if it were our friends or family that suffered the same lack of care, we'd be able to kick up much more of a fuss.

But I do feel optimistic that as individuals we can enable change and I'm saying this not to just readers from the UK but to visitors I know who come from across the world too.

Of course, Save the Children offices around the globe will always value any fundraising initiatives and donations that can support urgent causes like this, especially as for every £100 raised it means a midwife can be trained.  However, they would also value any part you can play in raising the issue with your own government representatives too. With the United Nations summit taking place this September, your voice can help world leaders to pledge their political will and the funds to go with it, raising the profile of this issue when it comes to money that might already be ringfenced for development aid.  Emailing your MP, Senator or whatever their official title may be, is a simple action that most of us can do, as well as sharing relevant links on Facebook and Twitter to spread awareness amongst our friends online.

But I've only been able to share a tiny glimpse here.  For more details, you really should take a look at the Save the Children website, where there is much more information about the Mothers for Other Mothers campaign as well as a full copy of the Missing Midwives report.

And to see the inspirational impact that Save the Children has, please do watch this video. In a world so large, investment in 350,000 midwives shouldn't be beyond our international capabilities, should it?

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Missing Midwives is part of Save the Children's No Child Born to Die campaign.  Save the Children helps tackle child poverty in the UK and in over 120 other countries. More information about the charity's achievements and how you can support its work can be found at www.savethechildren.org.uk.
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Born to write rubbish?

Last month I celebrated the third anniversary of this blog, a happy yet understated occasion.  However, during those three busy years, you won't believe how many times I have pondered just leaving it to die its own death in the blogosphere while I scurry back to an anonymous life far away from the wasteful coalface.  Fuelled by a multitude of conflicting commitments, an irrational fear of attracting more attention to myself and thoughts that there are much louder voices out there so what possible difference can I make, no wonder I've been at odds with my blogger's passion.

Yet this is my world, and yesterday I realised that I shouldn't be afraid of my own shadow. The issue of waste is more important than it has ever been, not least because of the imbalance between those of us who are lucky to waste what we like and those who are born into a life where the luxury of waste is not an option. What I am talking about here is real poverty and the wasted lives that result.

The event that has triggered such an outpour of serious contemplation on this otherwise relaxing Sunday morning was a blogging conference that I attended yesterday, which was organised by Save The Children.  As an international organisation, the charity operates in more than 120 countries, including the UK, working to save children's lives and fight for their rights, helping them to reach their potential.

Called Born to Write, it was a powerful conference, packed with hard-hitting photos and inspirational anecdotes about the influence of an individual's voice to harness change and prompt direct action.  Naturally the event focused on the work of the charity, highlighting its challenges.

I met passionate people who work hard to prevent young children dying from treatable conditions such as diarrohea and pneumonia whilst putting political pressure on world leaders to support necessary grants and in many cases cancel significant debts of impoverished countries. The aim of such political campaigns is to redirect much needed funds into free healthcare provision as well as solutions that tackle global child hunger and malnutrition. 

With rising food prices at home, we might complain about the higher cost of a weekly shop, but for millions, such hikes coupled by local famine, render basic foods unaffordable. And when you consider how much food is still wasted in the UK through lack of awareness and bad planning (and I confess to the odd item myself), it really highlights the scale of inequality.

One of the speakers at yesterday's conference was Director of Emergencies, Gareth Owen, whose job is to mobilise response teams to disaster zones such as Haiti. There were many things that he said which struck a chord, but one point that really stood out was his warning over the increased frequencies of natural disasters, which he attributed to the effects of climate change.  And it is the children of the poorest families who are ten times more likely to be affected by such environmental disasters.  It just shows how lucky I really am to have been born in the UK, with free health-care, access to education and a stable environment with minimal risk from natural disasters.  What I once took for granted now feels like a winning ticket in the remarkable lottery of life.

It would be easy to bury my head in the sand and run away from this blog due to issues of time, lack of confidence or the feeling that I don't shout loud enough to make a difference.  But one thing that yesterday taught me was that every blogger can make an impact on matters that they care about.

And I really do care about the amount of rubbish this world generates.  I also care about those who are less fortunate than me, and who are not so privileged or indeed do not live long enough to share their stories through their own voice.

No child born to die, is the carefully crafted title of the Save The Children campaign that was introduced to us yesterday, which asks each and every one of us, what we were born to do.

Well, after such a harrowing day, I realised I was born to teach my children about things that really matter and to raise them to be caring individuals, explaining more about the importance of stuff that I do.  Naturally I rushed home last night with renewed vigour to read them a bedtime story.   However as a blogger, and writing about the topics that I do, I hope that I was also born to make a difference to other people's lives too.

Whether that means I was born to write this rubbish blog, I guess only time will tell.  It's definitely stood the test of time so far, despite my other distractions.  Whatever happens, one thing's for sure and that's if what I write helps to bring even the smallest impact on the imbalance between the wasteful nature of our consumer-oriented society (governments and retailers included) and the poverty that exists both in the UK and abroad, I will be proud do have made my mark.

So, what were you born to do?

Whatever it is, I hope it matches your true passion, and if you're a blogger or someone who wants to take action to raise awareness of the effects of  global child poverty or indeed lobby parliament, you'll find lots of inspiration at www.savethechildren.org.uk.

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