Healthy Children Need Healthy Mothers
Maternal and Child health (MCH) care is the health service provided to mothers (women in their child bearing age) and children. The target for MCH are all women in their reproductive age groups, i.e 15 - 49 years of age, Children, School age population and adolescents. We should note that mothers and Children make up over 2/3 of the world's population.
Health is a complete physical, mental and social well-being state and not only absence of disease or ailment. Motherhood for too many women is associated with suffering, ill-health and death. Maternal health is a concept that encompasses family planning, preconception, prenatal and postnatal care.
Prenatal care is the comprehensive care that women receive and provide for themselves throughout their pregnancy. Women who begin prenatal care early in their pregnancies have better birth outcomes than women who receive little or no care during their pregnancies.
Postnatal care issues include recovery from Childbirth, concerns about newborn care, nutrition, breastfeeding and family planning. The first 24 hours after delivering is especially critical for newborns and mothers. Two-thirds of all maternal deaths occur in this postnatal period.
Most women in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to health care and sexual health education services. They receive insufficient or no prenatal care and deliver without help from appropriately trained health care providers. They have a 1 in 16 chances of dying in pregnancy or Childbirth compared to a 1 in 4,000 risk in developed worlds.
At least 20% of the burden of disease in Children below the age of 5 is related to poor maternal health and nutrition as well as quality of care at delivering and during the newborn period. Bad maternal conditions account for the fourth leading cause of death for women after HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Each year more than 10 million Children under the age of 5 die. Majority of them from preventable if affordable health interventions are made available to the mothers and Children who need them. Rotary Clubs and Districts should consider equipping primary health centers and hospitals that are lacking the basics in partnership with The Rotary Foundation.
Healthy Children need healthy mothers.