Not Your Average Donation

Sunday is Mother’s Day (in the U.S.) and if you haven’t gotten at least a card for your mom already, you should get on that.

If you’re looking for a gift idea, might I suggest making a donation to the Organic Health Response. OHR, my “other” job, is a young and rapidly growing CBO on Mfangano Island, Lake Victoria, Kenya (the EK Center) and a U.S.-based non-profit. Rooted in HIV/AIDS, OHR’s ethos centers on harnessing new technology, supporting social and community solidarity, and promoting sustainability. Many of our programs revolve around the women and mothers of the community: a craft co-operative for HIV+ women; CHW training and support; full involvement of women in EK and organizational leadership; and a safe and accessible space for HIV testing and treatment.

OHR has accomplished an extraordinary amount in just 4 years, but all types of support are needed to keep these efforts moving forward. This is not your average donation – my own mother got a donation in her honor for Christmas (and if you ask me, she loved it) – it will directly support a community charting their own course towards well-being!

The Women in Our Lives

Today is International Women’s Day – a day to celebrate the strength and uniqueness of women around the World, but also to acknowledge our daily challenges (yes, I’m a woman!)  I have been fortunate in my life to be surrounded by strong and diverse women – my mom, my grandmothers, aunts, cousins, sisters-in-law, friends, teachers and mentors.  They are mothers, students, scientists, doctors, swimmers, cooks, travelers, musicians, photographers, soldiers, volunteers… I could keep going, but you get my point.

Women in different cultures have varying opportunities, priorities, and worldviews.  Yet, in one of those fantastic twists of humanity, there is a thread of commonality among us.  As the world’s health systems evolve, this commonality among women must be a priority – effective and appropriate prevention and health care for all women.

In the US, this means a commitment to Health in All Policies that address transportation, food and health care access, education, and child care needs.  In Kenya, the establishment of sustainable food security for women affected by HIV.  And in many places in the world, the ability for women to make their own decisions about their bodies.  The health and education of women, as most of you already know, has an exponential impact on the well-being of children and communities.  A well-being, how ever you define it, that is a right.

I have stated before that being part of a given population should not be a negative determinant of health and I’m going to say it again – being a woman should not be a negative determinant of health.  In far too many places in the World, it is.  The women in our lives (“fascinating, if not a little bit scary”!) and their well-being are a cause worth our defense.

Images: Author’s own.  Matriculation day (University of Oxford, UK) and members of the EK Sisterhood Exchange Program (Mfangano Island, Lake Victoria, Kenya).

Whoa Baby

Bayar from Babies

Babies seem to be all the rage these days, so much so they are the stars of a new feature film out next month. Babies, which chronicles the first year of four babies born in four different countries, looks to me like it will be a pure pleasure to watch. Hopefully it will highlight the universal joys of human life, but also examine how unique and fantastic our cultural differences can be (if you haven’t yet, you really should watch the trailer – it will put a smile on your face). One of these differences is how we come into the world – in the United States, we are increasingly becoming a society where cesarean births are the norm. The CDC released a report yesterday on the new statistic that 1/3 of all women who give birth do so through cesarean section, the highest rate in American history.

These rates have risen in every age-group (groups ranging from 20 to 54 year-olds) and all of the racial-ethnic groups included in the study. The rate of women having cesarean births between the ages of 20-29 (the lowest risk age-group when pregnant) between 2000-2007 rose by roughly 8%. Cesarean births are major abdominal surgery, which often have serious complications requiring stays in the ICU and the mother to be re-admitted to the hospital. And while it shouldn’t be a decision maker, they are almost double the cost of vaginal births. What used to be a procedure saved for high-risk pregnancies/births, is now becoming common-place. The NYTimes had a nice article summarizing the report and talking about some of the reasons and effects of such a drastic shift in our birthing practices.

Rising numbers of multiple births (twins, triplets, etc.), larger babies, larger mothers, and older mothers, all represent our cultural shift towards using some of the amazing fertility technologies now available. And they are all more likely to have cesarean births. The CDC study did not specifically state, but there are no doubt stark socio-economic differences between vaginal and cesarean births as well. Women have been requesting the procedure even when it has been deemed not medically necessary, creating a culture of ‘pushers’ and ‘non-pushers’. Doctor’s fears of lawsuits have been tossed around as a reason for the rise too, but we are going to stick with this larger cultural shift as a whole. What does this mean for mothers and babies and how does the U.S. compare to the rest of the world?

The U.S. and other developed countries medicalized childbirth decades ago, but now it could be argued that if the rise in C-sections continues, women will literally have no control over the birth of their children. This rise is occurring in developing countries too, with China and countries in Latin America reaching nearly 50% of births through cesarean. Maternal Mortality Daily states that nearly 550,000 women die a year from complications from pregnancy – 99% of these occur in the developing world where simple aspects like clean water and sterilized equipment are scarce. The contrasts in birthing around the world are stark, and while women should have the right to choose the birth they feel is best for their child and themselves, we should recognize that the human universal of childbirth is far from a universal experience.

*Image from the upcoming feature film Babies.