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| International | ||
| Childbirth Deaths Higher Among Africans | ||
| 2003-10-20 | ||
| EFL - AP from Newsday African women have a one in 16 chance of dying during childbirth — a rate 175 times greater than that in the West, the United Nations said Monday.
How much did the study cost? Couldn’t this money have been better spent training mid-wives? Since accurate figures on maternal mortality are difficult to come by, the agencies developed a way of estimating the number of deaths in countries lacking statistics. Great, now some bozo can whine about African mortality using estimates that he created at is desk in Brussels. Kind of takes the "act" out of activism. The new method showed that 95 percent of the 529,000 maternal deaths in 2000 occurred in Africa and Asia. Is this new method called guessing? WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook said many African women deliver their children alone or with untrained attendants. "Skilled attendants are vital because they can recognize and prevent medical crises," he said. This answers the musical question: WHO are You. We’er idiots that point out obvisous conclusions from our desk where we conducted studies using data that we extracted from between our lower cheeks. UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy called the death rate "unacceptably high" and said there was an urgent need to provide better care, especially in Africa. Carol, the term unaccptable implies that you intend to take action. Carol, are you there? Carol... Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the Population Fund, said lives also would be saved if women had access to voluntary family planning. Glad Thoraya wasn’t around before I got my chronic in-grown toenail problem fixed. I think she would have recommended assisted suicide. Wouldn’t it be better if we start with the trained midwives before we build all the abortion clinics?
Wonder if you can estimate the effect of Taylor and Mugabe in your estimated statistics. | ||
| Posted by:Super Hose |
| #2 Did this report mention female genital mutilation? Compare areas that do and dont practice this? |
| Posted by: Grunter 2003-10-20 1:16:45 PM |
| #1 It's all fine and good for the UN to make all these paternal, childish little remarks, but it's not going to change anything in Africa. Half these women die because of superstitions and religious 'beliefs'. Most of the rest die because they have a problem 400 miles from the nearest medical facility, and the fastest rate of transportation is oxcart. That's what words like "underdeveloped" and "undeveloped" mean. IF there are real statistics, and IF they can be trusted, I'm sure you'd find 3/4 of the deaths occurring in places like the Congo, where roads are all but nonexistent, in places like Sierra Leone and Liberia, where there's an internal war going on that limits movement, and in places like Somalia where there's just no government at all. The statistics in Zimbabwe are about to go through the roof, since there's now no food and no petrol to power an ambulance. The problems that arise in Africa are the result of the way Africa behaves. I'm sure the death toll in modern South Africa is much lower than in rural Togo or Chad. Modern medical attention can do wonders, but not if the patient is brought to the hospital after riding on a camel for five days. Until Africa can put its childish, tribal conflicts to rest, can develop economically enough to invest in an adequate infrastructure, and can develop the training, techniques, and willingness to accept modern medical treatment, nothing the UN says is going to make a damned bit of difference. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-10-20 12:47:18 PM |