News
October 21, 2005
Liya Kebede Addresses the UN
I want to tell you the story of a young mother I met. Her name was Hiwot. She was a 17-year old school girl living at home with her mother. The young father left her months before, unprepared to deal with the responsibility.
She told me that when she was pregnant, she had to walk an hour to the nearest clinic. There were no bloodtests or birthing classes. And the thing that shocked me the most was that there was not even any running water in the hospital.
If it were not for the photographer who was documenting Hiwot's story for the WHO - who reached into his own pocket to pay for the water, the gloves, the sheets – in fact, everything she needed for a safe delivery – she would have had to give birth at home, alone, with no one to help her. Hiwot was so frightened that she considered abortion. Hiwot was actually very lucky. She had 1 chance in 12 of dying in childbirth. Her daughter, Elizabeth, is lucky too. One in every 25 new babies in Ethiopia die in their first week. Compare this to the United States. Here, death in childbirth is extremely rare, and practically every newborn survives.
Every day we hear about the dangers of cancer, heart disease and AIDS. But how many of us realize that, in much of the world, the act of giving life to a child is still the biggest killer of women of child-bearing age? That over half a million die every year. Or that 3 million babies are stillborn. Or that another 4 million die during the first days and weeks of life?
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