NY Times: This Mom Didn’t Have to Die, by Nicholas Kristof:
On this trip through West Africa with my “win-a-trip” contestwinner, I was reminded of one of the grimmest risks to human life here.Despite threats from warlords and exotic disease, it’s something evendeadlier: motherhood.
One of the most dangerous things an Africanwoman can do is become pregnant. So, along with the winner of mycontest for college students, Paul Bowers, I have been visiting theforlorn hospitals here in West Africa. According to the World HealthOrganization, Sierra Leone has the highest maternal mortality in the world, and in several African countries, 1 woman in 10 ends up dying in childbirth.
It’spretty clear that if men were dying at these rates, the United NationsSecurity Council would be holding urgent consultations, and a countrysuch as this would appoint a minister of paternal mortality. Yethalf-a-million women die annually from complications related topregnancy or childbirth without attracting much interest because thevictims are typically among the most voiceless people in the world:impoverished, rural, uneducated and female.