This past weekend the members of the Advent Maternal Health Initiative at Advent Lutheran Church in New York City spent the afternoon assembling Healthy Birth Kits. The Kits, containing soap, gloves, string, a razor blade, and baby blankets, will be sent to Healing Hands of Joy, a nonprofit working in Mekelle, Ethiopia.
Members of AMHI and volunteers working in an assembly line
Explore faith in action,
Educate your community on maternal health,
And walk in solidarity with your global sisters—
Announcing New and Expanded
Fistula Stories Curriculum!
A recent article in the medical journal The Lancet (http://press.thelancet.com/mmm.pdf) revealed that global maternal mortality is on the decline. This is good news, but much progress remains to be seen. It is still estimated that a woman dies in childbirth or from pregnancy-related complications every 90 seconds—and that for every one woman who dies there are 20 who live with childbirth-related injuries. One of those injuries is Obstetric Fistula. A hole between the vagina and bladder and/or rectum that leaves women incontinent and shunned, fistula affects more than 2 million women worldwide.
Remember that report that came out from Amnesty International recently, Deadly Delivery? It told us that maternal mortality is up %42 in the US since the 1980’s and that in New York City, women of color are 8 times more likely to die in childbirth than white women. If this isn’t a wake up call, we’re not sure what is!
Special thanks to Advent Maternal Health Initiative at Advent Lutheran Church for inviting us to be a part of a wonderful panel discussion they put together on April 25. There were about 50 folks in attendance who came to learn a little more about fistula, maternal health concerns worldwide, and what they could do to help. Way to go Suzanne, Blessing, and the entire team!
Panelists and Members of AMHI
Check out the other panelists and organizations that were involved:
As the readers of this blog know, obstetric fistulae are but one of the tragic outcomes of prolonged obstructed labor. Often times pregnancies pose serious health risks to both the mother and her baby.
According to a recent article in the Lancet, 342,900 mothers died worldwide in 2008 due to complications during pregnancy, childbirth, or in the 42 days after delivery. This is an unfathomable loss to the human community. While this statistic marks an improvement in the estimated number of maternal deaths (down from over 500,000 per year), it is unacceptable that nearly 1,000 women die each day from preventable consequences of pregnancy and childbirth.
This article from Women’s e-news daily highlights an uncomfortable truth about safe motherhood…this is definitely not some other country’s issue, it belongs to us all. The news that black women in New York City “are nearly eight times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white mothers” is even more troubling in light of last week’s NY Times article that told us the number of maternal deaths worldwide has declined sharply–from something like one death every minute to one death every minute and a half.
Reading all of this news has made me really eager to see the “Deadly Delivery” panel discussion tonight at Riverside Church (read below for more details).
film screenings and panel discussions, all free and open to the public!
Time: 1230pm-3pm
Location: Advent Lutheran Church, 2504 Broadway at 93rd Street NYC
Description: “The award winning feature-length documentary A Walk to Beautiful tells the stories of five Ethiopian women who suffer from devastating childbirth injuries and embark on a journey to reclaim their lost dignity. Rejected by their husbands and ostracized by their communities, these women are left to spend the rest of their lives in loneliness and shame. They make the choice to take the long and arduous journey to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in search of a cure and a new life.”
In the UK, Kalantha Brewis is walking to raise money for the Hamlin Fistula Foundation–barefoot. Here’s her story of faith in action:
It seems to me that sometimes you get an idea so odd that only the Holy Spirit could have given it to you. Why else would I find myself training for a 35 mile barefoot walk? “Take no sandals” said Jesus (Luke 10:4)
2010 has begun with an abundance of coverage of fistula in popular Christian magazines. It is so good to see the word getting out and people of faith getting informed!
“Hope for the ‘Most Voiceless’ on the Planet; A human rights lawyer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and two world-class surgeons are rallying evangelicals to defeat fistula,” By Elissa Cooper for Christianity Today, Jan. 13, 2010
“A Walk to Beautiful: A Must-See Film,” By Elissa Cooper for Christianity Today’s Her.meneutics Blog, Jan. 29, 2010
“Jesus and the Unclean Woman,” by L. Lewis Wall for Christianity Today, Jan. 13, 2010
“Extended Interview with Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn,” by Molly Marsh for Sojourners, Jan. 2010
“The Bleeding Woman,” By Julie Clawson for the God’s Politics Blog, Feb. 10, 2010
The following article, written by Suzanne Campise, outlines the Action Plan created by a Fistula Stories pilot group at Advent Lutheran Church. Read more and be inspired about what your own community could to do end fistula in this generation!
Inspired by the Fistula Curriculum, our group has decided to expand to include more members around the broader issue of Maternal Health. Beginning in April 2010, our group will launch a multi-month campaign at Advent Lutheran Church on 93rd and Broadway, NYC, advocating for maternal health as a national and international priority. Actions of this campaign will include:
