Celebrating motherhood

August 12^th is mothers’ day in Thailand. This date is chosen because it is the queen’s birthday, and it is a nationally celebrated public holiday. This year Monday 11^th has been given as a national holiday as well – part of the new military government’s drive to boost the economy and bring “happiness to the people” - so the country is enjoying a four day weekend.

On Friday we attended the mothers’ day celebrations at one of the centres. It was a real family occasion with mums and dads and lots of cute baby brothers and sisters.

 

Some of the girls did a delightful dance that they had been diligently practising all week, all dressed up in bright blue, the colour of the queen.  

Sadly, one of the dancers was overcome by the occasion and spent most of the morning sobbing in her mother’s arms. This meant the dancing troupe was one performer short, so the teacher grabbed a little boy at the last minute to stand in for her so her partner would not be alone. He rose to the occasion without a murmur and did a great job, but his partner did not look best pleased with the new arrangement!

After the dancing, the children took turns to pay respect to their mums, kneeling in front of them and presenting them with ceremonial flowers before being given a big hug and cuddle. All very moving!

 

As with any such event here, the morning ended with everyone sitting down to eat together, before the families all headed home.  It was a delightful occasion, a real celebration of family relationships and the role of mothers.

That evening, I came across a story from the BBC about a woman in India who swam a kilometre across a monsoon-swollen river in her ninth month of pregnancy so that she could have the chance to give birth in a hospital rather than at her isolated rural home. After a morning celebrating motherhood, I began thinking about the millions of women worldwide for whom simply becoming a mother is a life-threatening prospect.
 

Every day, roughly 800 women die from preventable causes relating to pregnancy and childbirth, with 99% of these deaths occurring in developing countries. The 2014 Millennium Development Goals Report indicates that Goal 5, which addresses reduction in maternal mortality and the achievement of universal access to reproductive health by 2015, is the furthest of all the goals from being reached.

Most maternal deaths are preventable. A crucial part of the strategy to reduce maternal mortality is ensuring that every baby is delivered with the assistance of a skilled health attendant - doctor, midwife or nurse - who has the skills and training to prevent or treat potentially life-threatening complications. Despite progress made in recent decades, in 2012 40 million births in developing regions were not attended by skilled health personnel, with over 32 million of these births occurring in rural areas.

VSO are making a significant contribution to improving these statistics by their programmes to train midwives in developing countries. In this short film, Lilian - a midwife in a small village in Malawi - talks about the training she received from a VSO volunteer midwife, and her tremendous sense of satisfaction and fulfilment at being able to save the lives of mothers and babies in her community.

Lilian with VSO volunteer Beth and a happy mother and baby