Too Many Women Are Dying

This little girl´s mother died giving birth to her

One night while having dinner in San Marcos, I noticed an older Caucasian woman with a young Guatemalan child. Nosy me was trying to figure out the relationship, as there didn´t seem to be a mother present and this woman was either babysitting or a guardian. Finally, I just asked and wow – what a story.

While this little girl´s mother was giving birth to her, the mother died. The father, unable to take care of the new baby or the older brother, relinquished guardianship of the brother to a grandmother and gave this Caucasian woman who happened to be in the room for the birth, legal guardianship of the new baby.

Talk about an instant change in one´s plans. Unfortunately, because of the woman´s age, the Guatemalan government won´t let her officially the little girl which means she´s either staying in Guatemala for a long time or she will have to relinquish guardianship of the child.

As one of the tenants at Pasajcap on the lake was a midwife from the States, I learned a little bit about maternal mortality here in Guatemala from her, and it isn´t pretty. She had attended two Guatemalan births – one the mother died, the other, the baby died. Legally she wasn´t allowed to assist, but was simply an observer in the room. She felt that both deaths could have been prevented with better supplies and training. Hemorraghing is a major issue as many women are already anemic and midwives are apparently being urged by “modern doctors” to hurry up the delivery of the babies. Babies and mothers are not adapting well to this new method of a process as old as life itself.

From my research online, I learned that the maternal mortality rate in Guatemala remains the highest in all of Central America at 190 deaths per 100,000 live births. On the other hand, in the US, the maternal death rate was 11 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2005

Child mortality in Guatemala ranked the highest of all Central American countries in 1995, with 51 out of every 1,000 dying before the age of five. However, in the past seven years, this number has decreased to 45 out of every 1,000 so we are headed in the right direction, mostly due to the work of many NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in the country.

On one of our last boat trips on Lake Atitlan, I sat beside a young mother with a little boy 3 years old and a young baby of about 6 months. It was nearing dark but she told me that they would have to walk 1 ½ hours home up the mountain to their village home. Dangerous – yes. Isolated – definitely. This problem is one of the reasons for high maternal mortality.

The book “Too far to walk: Maternal mortality in context” explains that isolation and then lack of proper staff and equipment is a problem in the Guatemalan highlands.

It´s one of the reasons that I can only applaud and support the amazing work I have continually witnessed over the last few months. Incredible dedication coupled with a wonderful commitment to helping the Guatemalans has meant that real progress is being made on many fronts.

The example of this little girl who is being so lovingly cared for by a foreigner in her time of need is a perfect example. I´ll be letting you know soon how you can help make a difference. There is lots of work to do here and if we all do a little, it will add up to a lot!

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