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BETWEEN LIFE AND death is how childbirth is often described in Ethiopia and across the African continent. Every year in Ethiopia, over 25,000 women lose their lives during childbirth and a further 400,000 have significant medical complications.
Ethiopia’s maternal mortality rate is 637 deaths per 100,000 live births. In Ireland, while the birth of a child is a nerve wracking experience for many families, the risk of death for mother or child isn’t as big a threat where the maternal mortality rate eight deaths per 100,000 live births.
On a visit to Yirgalem Hospital last month to meet with VSO volunteer, Dr McCauley, I came face to face with the reality of childbirth in Ethiopia. The hospital lacked basic equipment that would be seen in even the smallest Irish hospital and a smell lingered throughout. As we were filming, an expectant mother delivered twins with complications. They needed to be brought to a larger hospital nearby and we were their only option.
When the babies stabilised at the larger hospital Dr McCauley informed us that they had been both born with HIV but added ‘at least they are alive’. Life is precious in Ethiopia and for a mother and twin babies to all survive childbirth is a major achievement.
The question now is – how do we ensure that fewer women and babies die in childbirth? Financial aid alone cannot fix this. Just throwing money at this and other development issues doesn’t work.
VSO knows that the best and simplest way to reduce maternal and child mortality is to ensure that expectant mothers have the right support during pregnancy and at the moment of birth. As part of an agreement with the Ethiopian government, VSO has agreed to train over 8,635 midwives, 233 anaesthetists and obstetricians by 2020.
By sending volunteers such as Dr Mary McCauley or midwife Susan Davies-Jones to work with local Ethiopian health professionals, local capacity to deal with these issues can be hugely expanded. Because local capacity is built and the skills can be passed on, the solution is self-perpetuating.
Working in Yirgalem General Hospital, Mary McCauley is at the coalface. Her role is to ensure that local professionals have the skills needed to deliver babies safely and ensure that more mothers live.
She doesn’t seek to replace local Ethiopians but instead trains and mentors them to be better health professionals, adhering to best practice and sharing their skills and ideas with each other.
‘Statistics are only numbers. To be here, it really brings it home’ said Dr McCauley.
‘Since we have done the training in our hospital, we have seen a reduction in the mortality rates of women and babies. Personally and professionally, it’s the best thing I have done so far,’ added Mary.
VSO is always looking for experienced health professionals to volunteer because as Mary puts it ‘the need is so great’. But VSO is looking at the bigger picture. It doesn’t just want to deal with maternal death rates in 2013 or 2014 but seeks to find a long term sustainable solution. That’s where the power of volunteers comes in. Money alone may not be able to stop women dying but people working together to build something bigger than themselves for the longer term can.
(Via YouTube/VSOIreland)
VSO is an international development organisation that works through volunteers to fight poverty and its causes. It recruits experienced professional volunteers to share their skills, experiences and knowledge with local people in Africa, Asia and the Pacific to build resilience and capacity. Learn more about VSO by attending its next information event on the 27 July at 2pm in the Irish Aid Centre, O’Connell Street. Click here to register.
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Allowing citizens who wish to imbibe weed to grow three or four plants would go a long way to reducing the hold criminals have on the supply, which more and more is now sprayed with contaminants, from ground glass to add weight, K2 or Spice to increase the strength, which has horrendous consequences on mental health, to God knows what else they are spraying on weed. Most weed in Europe, England and now Ireland, is adulterated with these unpredictable in effect and dangerous to the users health chemicals. Which are also highly addictive. Time is long over due for a fresh approach to our anti drug policies.
@P0h2YVAL: Licensed premises selling tested strains labelled for cannabinoid content would go even farther.
@P0h2YVAL: Maybe people should stop taking drugs that alter their minds. Its servers no purpose only to escape from reality. Recreational drugs have zero benefit to society. Look at the problems alcohol causes alone. Q list of jobless morons or unmotivated buffon’s with zero drive claiming I’m a killjoy or a bore. I was well able to go clubbing and enjoy nights out without the need for cocaine weed, mdma etc. Ban it all with zero tolerance for users. It’s absolutely ludicrous how acceptable illegal drugs use is. End demand and in turn it end the violence associated with the supply.
@Mike Carson: All ‘drugs’ are not the same and if it was just ‘jobless morons’ then we wouldn’t have a problem, I’m not convinced we even do, but people rarely seek research that challenges them, more inclined to search instead for reasons to bolster an opinion or feeling.
Great article, an interesting read
I agree – they should be made available freely and the ones who want to use it all the time will sort themselves out. Darwins theory and everything..
@Kush OMeara: You might be surprised at how little harm most of these drugs do when they’re clean, labelled, predictable and not being pushed just made available.
I can just imagine his next article, “People trafficking, why stopping it might cause more harm than it prevents.”
This warped mindset is what has been preached in third level education for decades now, and here we have the result, an actual brainwashed professor advocating for the free circulation of Class A drugs.
They may couch it in ambiguous semantics, but that is their goal.
If you agree with this argument vote uniparty, FF/FF/SF/Labour/Green/SocDem and other Marxist lunatics at the next election.
@Garry Coll: The current policy has people pushing adulterated drugs at anyone who can be talked into buying them irrespective of age or mental stability.
It causes violence as people are punished for the debt they owe on the drugs that have just been seized. Most dealers work on credit and cannot pay for the drugs if they don’t get to sell them.
It causes health problems because of the adulterants and unpredictable strength.
So yes we need a better solution, what’s your suggestion – hint there is strong evidence that increasing the level of enforcement doesn’t work.
@Steve O’Hara-Smith:
Looking at how you respond to almost every comment on this article, you must be either the nutty doctor’s alter ego or some stinking troll sitting in the basement of the office of the Journal paid to push a druggie agenda.
Just to recall, people remember the COVID lockdown period, when nobody could walk down the street, go to the beach, or basically fart, without finding a member of the Gardai in their face.
Do you remember who could move around freely?
Oh yes, drug importers and pushers.
Cocaine was never as freely available.
So don’t give me any rancid garbage about “the current policy”.
Government policy is to flood the country with as much drugs as trafficked migrants, in the hope that young people will be too stoned to notice what’s going on.
@Garry Coll: Neither apply. I’m sitting at home. This just happens to be a subject I care about
Many people could move around freely during the lockdowns. All you needed was a reason.
I was out twice a day taking my daughter to her horse for example.
Naturally the dealers found or manufactured reasons to be on the road.
Government policy appears to be to support organised crime by ensuring that their business is not destroyed by legal competition.
Organised crime gangs are the only people who benefit from prohibition.
@Steve O’Hara-Smith: Stephen anybody that can’t see that the current legislation is doing more harm than good for addicts casual drug users alike is far removed from the situation.. gerrys posts are embarrassing and do not warrant a reply..
@Stiles: I know, but if I put all the points in one post it would be an article not a comment.
@Steve O’Hara-Smith: More reason to stop the end user. Make the sanctions more severe. Huge fines, prison even a criminal record for possession. Too many people think it’s acceptable to use coke, mdma etc. Most people under 30 are taking these drugs at the weekend thinking its normal behaviour. Stopping supply wont work so time to focus on the demand.
After five decades of the enforcement-driven global drug control system, the “war on drugs” faces unprecedented scrutiny. Originally aimed at achieving a “drug-free world,” this effort has instead fueled a staggering illegal drug trade. Despite over a trillion dollars spent, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that 270 million people still use illegal drugs, while organised crime reaps over $330 billion annually from the world’s largest illicit commodity market. Ian Marder does Irish society a service by asking us to reflect on the efficacy of current drug policies.
The most fantastic bit of gaslighting I have seen in the journal in a long time ,
We are already one of the biggest users of cocaine in Europe,but sure don’t try and stop it we don’t want the price going up for the poor user ,cost of living crisis strikes again.
@sean weir: Read the article again. Our current approach is counter-productive we need a better one.
@sean weir: They’ve been failing to stop it for 50 years. The reality is (this is a bit of a shocker)… most people are fine.
@sean weir: European Drug agency has stated many times that there is no correlation between legalisation and increased usage … in fact I believe in some cases it led to decreased usage in teenagers..
@Steve O’Hara-Smith: we need to address the fact that we should make weed legal and tax the hell out of it ,use this money to treatment for addicts as a option instead of jail.
And put up sentences for major dealers that ensure the penalty is greater than the crime .
Drugs aren’t bad, m’kay….
This is just anti-prohibition propaganda dressed up as “ReSeArCh”
I’m not going to say I back or oppose prohibition, but this article is disingenous .
Mate of mine is Garda SDU in the west of Ireland. He told me they know where gangs keep their drugs, guns and cash but that if they raid the spots, people get paro and then feuds kick off
@Littlebirdie: Legalise, license and regulate.
Watch the gangs go broke.
And he calls himself a Dr
@Dominic Leleu: He’s an assistant professor of criminology at Maynooth University. His PhD comes from Leeds University and is in Criminal Justice Studies.
He has the qualifications and experience that say he knows what he is talking about.
Harsher penalties for the end user.If targeting supply isn’t working, perhaps it’s time to attack users rather than portraying them as victims and adopting a soft accepting mindset towards them; after all, they are the ones fueling the death and bloodshed involved with the illegal drug trade. Demand drives this business, just as it does any other. Reduced demand makes the business no longer viable. Cartels lose revenue and collapse.
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