A Priceless Gift for Mother's Day

COMMENTARY by Yolonda C. Richardson

May 9, 2008 – This Mother’s Day, I will be thinking about the girls I recently met in the Minjibar Local Government Area of Nigeria.

These young girls, between ages 13 and 15, are growing up in a Muslim Hausa community within Kano State, a vibrant hub of commerce along the trade routes between Africa and the Middle East.

Here in the United States, their days might be filled with thoughts about how much homework they had or how well they did in soccer practice.

In Minjibar, I met these girls in the maternity ward of a local hospital. They were already married and about to become mothers.

Unfortunately, child marriage and early childbearing is a common practice in many areas of the world, including in Nigeria. Because adolescent girls are not physically ready to become pregnant, they have a high risk of suffering severe complications during pregnancy and childbirth.

Younger age of pregnancy, coupled with the delay that many families in Nigeria experience in getting maternal health care, leads to high rates of maternal death in the country. The risk of a mother dying during childbirth is 1 in 13 in Nigeria, one of the highest maternal death rate in the world. The death rate in Northern Nigeria—where child marriage is more common—is even higher.

Many other women and adolescent girls suffer injuries such as obstetric fistula, an injury typically caused by several days of obstructed labor without prompt medical intervention.

Despite these dire statistics, more than twenty years of research and experience have demonstrated proven ways to prevent maternal health complications like fistula, and save the lives of mothers and their newborns.

Progress in countries such as Egypt, Sri Lanka and Thailand has shown the benefits of effective, low-cost investments in preventive health care, education and strengthening health systems. The World Health Organization estimates that less than two-thirds of women in less developed countries are assisted by skilled attendants during childbirth. And, according to the UN Population Fund, many couples still do not have access to family planning services that could help women space their pregnancies to healthier intervals.

Community health education workers go door-to-door to educate women and their families about reproductive health.

CEDPA has been working in areas including Nigeria to ensure that girls stay in school, delay chilbearing and expand their future opportunities. We are also working hand-in-hand with religious leaders and other community stakeholders in Northern Nigeria to increase support for maternal health care and improve access to international family planning services that enable girls to delay their first pregnancy and to be able to space births throughout their reproductive years.

Despite the enormous need for these services, U.S. funding for international family planning programs has declined by almost 40% over the past decade. This year, some Congressional leaders are calling for a new $1billion annual commitment to restore funding for these vital health programs. CEDPA has joined other development agencies to support this call for increased funding that improves women’s health and allows families to plan healthier and safer pregnancies.

As we get ready to celebrate Mother’s Day in the United States, CEDPA is honoring those women who bring new life to the world, despite the risks, by calling for renewed efforts to ensure all women can deliver their children under the safest conditions, with access to proper and skilled care during their pregnancies and throughout their lives.

I hope you will join us. The girls of Minjibar, and their mothers, will thank you.

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