Marjorie Crowell and Nora Garry
Mexico
Commission on the Status of Women
Maternal Health
Notre Dame High School
18 October 2007
Maternal health is a pressing, international concern. The world’s population is
growing exponentially every day and it is vital that mothers are protected in order to
ensure that this population growth happens as safely as possible. This, however, is not the
case. More than 500,000 mothers each year die and tens of millions of others bear
pregnancy-related maladies or injuries from difficulties during childbirth due to a lack of
access to medical care and equipment (Kondo 3). These deaths and illnesses result mostly
from developing countries, where the technologies and medicine that could prevent most
of them is inaccessible.
Even after the mother has given birth, maternal health is still an important issue.
Many mothers experience postpartum depression, which stems from hormonal changes in
a woman’s body and lead to depression and other damaging symptoms (6). The
depression also thwarts the mother’s ability to raise the child up to her full potential. She
may be lethargic or irritable, impeding her from giving the child all of the affection it
needs. Developing countries’ health systems also fail to give women the proper support
during post-partum depression.
Another important issue regarding maternal health is that of neonatal care. Ten
million children die each year before their fifth birthday. Most of them die from
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preventable causes, such as a lack of immunizations or vaccinations (7-8). Most of them
could have been prevented by clean delivery and management of complications. Health
facilities must ensure a clean delivery so that any newborn viruses can be prevented (8).
Health care facilities must also ensure for warm, dry environments for the infants
immediately after their birth (8).
The United Nations has tried to combat the struggles with maternal health in
certain aspects of its Millennium Development Goals. The UN understands that
improvements in maternal health will reduce poverty, improve the well-being of young
children, increase the child survival rate, empower women, and improve infectious
diseases (11). However, these efforts have not improved maternal health as much as
needed (15). The United Nations needs to act fast to ensure that all pregnant women have
sufficient access to medical aid, psychological support, neonatal care, and pertinent
information regarding their childbirth.
The United Nations needs to help the international community better understand
the current problems regarding maternal health. International clinics to help improve
maternal health care would improve standards regarding medical aid; however, this
would take a great deal of money and would be difficult for rural, developing countries,
to administer. Maternal health can also be greatly improved by raising awareness of the
dangers involved in pregnancy and the ways in which to prevent such risks and ensure
the safest pregnancies possible.
Maternal and neonatal health are important issues to Mexico because Mexico is a
growing country with roughly 2.39 children born for each woman in the country (“CIA –
The World Factbook” 4 of 14). There is also a substantial number of people living with
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HIV/AIDS, which also relates to the issues of maternal health and neonatal care (4 of 14).
The United States Agency for International Development allocated $1.5 million to
HIV/AIDS activities in Mexico in 2002 to help prevent the spread of HIV through
childbirth (“USAID Health” 1 of 1). However, being as the land in Mexico is mostly
rural, health care is difficult to administer on a nation-wide basis. Mexico is willing to
cooperate with the UN to improve its standards regarding maternal health but sees the
need to go about the process gradually. Mexico looks more toward El Salvador’s example
of an organization raising awareness of contraceptives and abstinence than one of nationwide clinics. An organization formed to educate women on abstinence, contraceptives,
proper precautions during delivery, and how to best ensure the child’s health after child
birth would be feasible and make a difference in international maternal health.
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Works Cited
“CIA – The World Factbook – Mexico.” The World Factbook. 2000. Central Intelligence
Agency. 15 October 2007. <www.cia.gov>.
Kondo, Asami. “Maternal Health.” Rutgers Model United Nations Director’s Brief for
the Commission on the Status of Women. The Institute for Domestic and
International Affairs. 2007. 15 October 2007. <www.idia.net>.
“USAID Health: HIV/AIDS, Countries, Mexico.” USAID From the American People.
2006. USAID. 15 October 2007. <www.usaid.gov>.
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