Save the Children: The State of the World's Mothers

Save the Children's 2012 report, The State of the World's Mothers, was released this month, and the U.S.A. has moved up a few spots, landing at 25 out of 165 countries!

The move, however, was  attributed to "improvements across education indicators," and not improvements specifically regarding maternal and child health and well-being. Every little bit counts!

The slightly more fightening statistic, though, was lifetime risk of maternal death--the chances that a girl of 15 will, at some time in her life, die of childbirth related causes in the United States. From the report:

"In the United States, mothers face a 1 in 2,100 risk of maternal death – the highest of any industrialized nation."


Allow me to break that down for you, using the National Security Council's lovely infographic, the Odds of Dying:

In the United States, you are 3 times more likely to die from a baby, than from a gun (Fire arms discharge, lifetime risk-- 1 in 6,609), and 3.5 times more likely to die from a baby than from plane crashes (Air and Space transport incidents, lifetime risk--1 in 7,178). You are 69 times more likely to die from a baby, than from a dog attack (Bitten/struck by dog, lifetime risk--1 in 144,899).


Here's an easy way to help spread the word about the sorry state of the United States' maternal healthcare system:

Ask your friends the next time you see them. How many of them are scared of guns? How about flying on an airplane--this particular fear ranks 9th according to About.com's list of phobias and fears (dogs ranked 5th).

Then put their fears in perspective.

In Memory of: Alice Hansen

One of the blogs I (Anna) follow in my private life is a brilliant crafting blog from my hometown, called HoneyBear Lane. Run by Heidi, a momma to 3 little ones, it has crfats and sewing projects, home decor, a little bit of cooking, and a ton of funny, inspirational stories.
However, recently the HoneyBear Lane family has been hit, hard. Heidi's sister-in-law, Alice, contracted a horrible infection known as Strep A Toxic Shock after giving birth to her third child, lapsed into a coma, and after a hard fight, unfortunetly passed away. The story, in full, you can read here.

Everyone involved in the I, MOM project (and all of HoneyBear Lane's readers) are saddened and shocked by the tragic news.

Heidi has set up a Paypal account to accept donations for her brother and their three small children. Please send them your condolences, and offer up your prayers, if you're so inclined!

A special doll is being made in Alice's memory.

Alice was a talented musician, and her sister-in-law asked

that these posters be shared in Alice's name.

NONA closes

So, as NONA winds down this weekend with the graduating 2012 class at Santa Fe University of Art and Design recieving their diplomas Saturday morning, here's a quick visual recap!

5 of NONA's 9 artists-- left to raight:

Daisy Quezada, Anna Ryan, Karen Belton, Michelle Eckert, Jared Schmock,

and faculty advisor, Susan York.

Wall text for I, MOM

"In Memory of Mothers

In 2011, 24 out of every 100,000 children born in the United States lost their

mothers in childbirth. The Center for Disease Control lists 2/3 of those maternal

deaths as "entirely preventable," a result of inadequate care, oversight, and

negligence. The 640 lives unnecessarily lost prompted Amnesty International to

label the maternal death rate in the U.S. a crisis.

The 640 dolls gathered here represent the 640 women who needlessly died

giving birth last year."

Ground view of all 640 dolls and wall text.

Detail of the white/pink section of dolls.

Red section detail.

Red and black dolls detail.

Daisy Quezada, Anna and Madilynn Ryan (that's us!) and Anna Harney in front of the 640 dolls.

NONA's opening night and subsequent 2 week run went great--Santa Fe's community turned out in droves and reception to the work of the individual artists was warm. Thank you to everyone who made it to the show--and who made the show possible!

So I was curious. . .

I know that health statistics lag a few years, depending on the latest reports. In the I, MOM project, and installation, I've been using the statistics for 2011--a personal year for me, not only because last year is the year Amnesty International released their updated data for Deadly Delivery, but also because that's the year my daughter was born.
Today I was wondering, however, what I could do with the US census birth rates per state from the latest year available and the maternal mortality rates from Deadly Delivery (the data for which, I believe, is also from 2009 numbers).
Why, figure out how many women died giving birth in each state in 2009, of course!

So this is what I'll be doing tonight--converting ratios to percentages, multiplying percentages by number of births, and coming up with the number of women who died, by state.
I haven't been able to find the statistics for this online as of yet, so I expect the results to be interesting. I'll post again when I have the hard numbers for all 50 states figured out!

More shocking statistics

Baby Center is causing a stir again this week, citing a Fox news article about premature births:

"According to Fox News, 15-million babies worldwide were born prematurely in 2010. 1.1 million of those babies died. A Reuters report explains that premature birth rates have doubled in developing countries since 1995, despite widespread efforts to reduce them.

The difference between death from premature birth and survival lies in where these babies are born.

“While more than 90 percent of babies born before 28 weeks in wealthier countries survive, however, in poor countries more than 90 percent die.”

Of the eleven countries that have preterm birth rates of 15 % or higher, nine of those are in sub-Saharan Africa. But, while geography is at play, wealth alone does not determine preterm birth rates.
The U.S. ranks poorly, coming in at 130th out of 184 countries. With a 12 percent rate– 12 preterm births per 100– USA ties with Somalia, Turkey and Thailand. It only just edges out Honduras and Timor."

Reading most of the comments, the consensus seems to be that the United States has a high rate of premature births because of our advanced healthcare system--better healthcare, the comments read, leads to more live preemies! While I'm ready to acknowledge that--again, they state that “While more than 90 percent of babies born before 28 weeks in wealthier countries survive, however, in poor countries more than 90 percent die.” Obviously, wealth and technology are saving babies.
However, that doesn't change the fact that here, 12 out of every 100 babies BORN, regardless of whether they live or die, are born premature.

That doesn't change the fact that here, with 12 out of 100 babies being born premature, we are on par with Somalia, a country famed as "a failed state and is one of the poorest and most violent states in the world," according to the Human Development Report 2010 – Data Tables. United Nations.

It may be speculative, but perhaps some of the same problems that contribute to the poor state of our preterm birth rate are also contributing to the dangerous state of maternal health in America. 

Healthy  moms = healthy babies.