Reason #14 to Support Periclean Scholars: Help Achieve Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5, Improve Maternal Health

Today’s post in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) series will address Goal 5: Improve maternal health. It will also address Target 5.A: Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio and Target 5.B: Achieve universal access to reproductive health.

During my time at Elon, I remember that my class (2009) and other classes had discussed maternal health as a potential area of focus. The gap between the world’s richest and the world’s poorest is unfortunately clear in countries’ maternal healthcare disparities. In developing nations, women lack education and tools to make informed choices about their bodies, to obtain the best care for their fetuses, and to avoid preventable death due to birth. I am pleased to learn that a current class – the 2013 Chiapas, Mexico group – is working on this issue.

The Class of 2013 has created different focus groups for students to research ways for their talents and passions to make the greatest possible difference to the people in Chiapas, Mexico. One of these groups is the healthcare group. Through their research, the healthcare group discovered that women’s health – including maternal health – does not receive adequate consideration across the village, and that there is work to be done on this front. As a result, the group vetted potential partners and decided to pursue a co-op with a birth center in San Cristóbal de las Casas called Luna Maya. Luna Maya’s mission is to ensure that all women in Chiapas have access to humanized health care, including safe and humanized birth. They believe in empowering women to make informed choices and have access to resources for health and wellbeing. They also believe that access to safe motherhood is a human right that leads to the empowerment of women, enhancement in quality of life, and strengthening of families. I am excited to see the work of the Class of 2013 develop on this front. While it is currently a fledgling partnership, I have no doubt that it will become as strong as current Periclean partnerships – and make great strides toward MDG 5.

I will continue with yesterday’s example of including graphs to demonstrate the needs for Periclean Scholars and make suggestions for further action.

For this first graph, a downward slope is indicative of positive strides.

According to this graphic, many of the Periclean nations need help in addressing maternal mortality. The Mexico group’s work will be important in moving a stagnant number in the right direction. Between 1995 and 2008, the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births has held right at 58.

I also wanted to point out that the United States’ maternal mortality ratio – while one of the best in the world – has doubled since 1995. Yes, the number itself is low, but this trend is troubling. Perhaps this is an issue that the 2014 group will find is an issue in Appalachia, and they can work to reverse it.

Next, I will show a graph related to Target 5.B: Achieve universal access to reproductive health. The measure that I am using is contraceptive prevalence (percent of women ages 15-49). It does not measure access; it measures the percentage of women who are practicing (or whose partners are practicing) any form of contraception. In effect, this is a better measure of success because it shows that contraception has become ingrained into a society as acceptable for sexual practices.

For this dataset, an upward slope is indicative of positive strides.

The dataset is not complete; for instance, we have data for Mexico and the world through 2009, but we only have data for the United States through 2002. Regardless, we can conclude the following. The India group’s work with women and health at the Comprehensive Rural Health Project is direly needed, because India has recently reversed a good trend. Mexico’s culture has accepted and is practicing contraception, which means access to contraception can be integrated well with the Class of 2013’s targets and goals. Most of the Periclean nations are on a positive, upward trend with contraception practice, but none are near 100% in practice.

There is a lot of work to be done on this front. The Class of 2013 has taken the lead on this issue. I believe it can be integrated into even more Periclean efforts in the long run, with the proper support. The health of a new family starts with the health of the mother. If the mother cannot survive through childbirth, the family is shattered. Reducing maternal mortality increases the strength of families, and strong families increase the economic and social potential of the world and its citizens.

Because of the work that Periclean Scholars have set out to do, this is reason #14 to support Periclean Scholars: help achieve Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5, improve maternal health.