Childbirth - In My Life & In Africa

The hardest yet most rewarding childbirth that I have experienced was that of my only son, of course.  Like most, I was extremely afraid. I didn’t know what to expect and of course all of my friends and family members were giving my “unwanted” advice and horror stories of when they gave birth. I can remember going into the hospital around 6 in the morning thinking to myself, “this is going to be a breeze!”  The first event that went wrong was the fact that they couldn’t get my IV started, due to the fact I have small, rolling veins and I hadn’t  eaten  anything  since about  7pm the night  before. They had to call in several nurses, including the triage and ICU nurses to attempt to get it. It took about 2 hours, but they were finally able. After about 4 hours I started to feel excruciating pains, but considering I have a sort of high tolerance for pain, I just assumed the pain was coming from my baby lying on one side of my body for too long. After 5 hours of dealing with such pain, I started to scream for epidural. To make a long story short, the pain I was experiencing were from contractions obviously, and after being in labor for about 12 hours our healthy bundle of joy was finally welcomed into the world.

Childbirth as it relates to other countries around the world is extremely different.  For example, in other countries, mothers tend to give birth in the comfort of their home rather than in a managed care setting. They also usually give birth naturally as here in the US epidural is used more often.  Another fact in other countries such as Africa, mothers tend to have multiple births back to back without allowing the body to heal and deplete the mother's essential nutrients, putting her at higher risk for anemia and other complications such as uterine rupture, which in turn puts babies at risk of low birth weight and preterm birth (Russell, 2011). In Niger, a woman gives birth to an average of nearly eight children. Uganda, Mali and Somalia are close behind, with an average of six to seven children per woman. Each pregnancy increases the risk of complications and death. The most common causes of maternal deaths, according to UNICEF, are hemorrhaging, infection, obstructed labor, hypertensive disorders during pregnancy and complications from an unsafe abortion. "The root cause," according to UNICEF's annual State of the World's Children Report, "may lie in women's disadvantaged position in many countries and cultures and in the lack of attention to, and accountability for, women's rights (UNICEF, 2009)."

"Saving the lives of mothers and their newborns requires more than just medical intervention," said UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman. "Educating girls is pivotal to improving maternal and neonatal health and also benefits families and societies (UNICEF, 2009)."

I agree with Ms. Veneman in her last comment in regards to educating girls in the schools system. This will help eliminate possible teenage pregnancy and make them into strong respectable young women.

References:

Russell, K. (2011). Childbirth in Developing Countries. World Press. Retrieved from http://www.worldpress.org/Africa/3834.cfm

UNICEF (2009). UNICEF launches flagship report on maternal and newborn health. Retrieved from http://origin-www.unicef.org/sowc/index_47192.html