Total Number of Pages: 8
Suggested Title: Maternal Health: The Church’s Role
Resolution #3203: Maternal Health: The Church’s Role - Amend and Readopt General Church Budget Implications: None
Global Implications: Yes
“I came so that they could have life—indeed, so that they could live to the fullest” (John 10:10).
Motherhood is sacred. Mothers are important figures in our biblical tradition. Women like Eve, Hagar, Sarah, Elizabeth, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, are remembered for their role as bearers of new life. But within the sacred texts, stories also tell of maternal tragedy and loss. Both Rachel (Genesis 35:16-20) and the wife of Phinehas (1 Samuel 4:19-20) died after prolonged and difficult labors.
Tragically, stories of maternal death are commonplace ordinary today. For many women, especially those living in poverty and in developing countries, giving birth is dangerous and life threatening. Worldwide maternal mortality is a leading cause of death for women of child bearing age. Every 90 seconds a woman dies somewhere in the world from complications during pregnancy or childbirth; for every woman who dies, another 20 suffer disability.
According to the World Health Organization, over 300,000 women die each year – roughly 830 every day – from pregnancy- or childbirth-related complications. The main causes of maternal mortality include infection, hemorrhaging, high blood pressure, and obstructed labor. They are mostly preventable. Many of these deaths are preventable.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells the disciples that he came so that they could live life to the fullest. God desires that every mother, every child, and every family not only survive, but thrive. Tragically, with regards to maternal care, survival is often a daily struggle for those women who lack access to basic services that they needand care. God calls us to respond to the suffering around us in the world, to love our neighbors throughout the world. As followers of Christ, we are members of the same body. The loss of one member is a loss for all. We must care for everyone – especially women who are already navigating systems of oppression and often risking their lives during and following pregnancy and birth.
The global community is taking steps to address the tragedy of maternal mortality. Members of the United Nations established in 2015 the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which set targets for a better, more sustainable future for all. Every SDG is an essential part of saving mothers’ and babies’ lives and SDG 3 specifically includes the target of reducing global mortality to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030. 2000 the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that set targets for improving health, reducing disease and poverty, and ensuring human rights of all people. The fifth MDG, to improve maternal health, sets a goal of reducing maternal mortality by 75 percent by 2015.
Maternal deaths have dropped by a third since 1990. While such progress is significant, increased efforts must be implemented globally to reach the 2015 target of 75 percent reduction. Maternal deaths exist in both developed and developing countries. An example among developed countries is that maternal mortality in the United States is on the rise. US maternal deaths have doubled since 1987.
Maternal deaths exist in all countries. According to the World Bank, maternal mortality rates range from 1,360 deaths per 100,000 live births in Sierra Leone to 114 deaths per 100,000 live births in the Philippines to 5 deaths per 100,000 live births in Norway. Most countries’ maternal death rates are decreasing with the exception of thirteen countries including North Korea and the United States.
Maternal mortality rates often vary within each country based on a number of factors. In the United States, for example, the Center for Disease Control reports that black women are more than twice as likely to die as a result of pregnancy than white women. Public health experts attribute two primary factors to this racial disparity in maternal deaths: implicit bias within the medical system and weathering that occurs over the lifespan of black women whose bodies are worn down more quickly from the daily impact of racism and sexism.
Maternal mortality is a moral tragedy and the Church must address the health, economic, and cultural barriers that contribute to maternal deaths. Nearly all of the more than 350,000 annual maternal deaths occur in the developing world. Many factors contribute to this vast health inequity.
Health Barriers
In the developing worldAll over the world, many women of child-bearing age lack access to reproductive health services such as prenatal care, and postnatal care, including information and resources to space and time pregnancies and family-planning services. This is particularly dangerous for pregnant women. With no hospital or clinic nearby, women customarily give birth
at home in unsanitary conditions. This puts both the woman and her baby at risk of infection. If a woman experiences a life-threatening complication while in labor at home, she may not be able to reach emergency care in time. Situations like these could be prevented if women had access to health information and medical care that are essential to them.
Unintended pregnancy is also a health concern. Globally, more than 200 million women would like to avoid or delay pregnancy, but they lack access to modern contraceptive services. This results in millions of unintended pregnancies every year. Supply shortages, lack of education, misinformation, and cultural barriers all contribute to this unmet need. Without access to contraceptives, women are unable to manage the timing and birth spacing of their children. This is of particular concern to women who have given birth within the past two years and those who are HIV-positive: The former’s bodies may not have fully recovered, and the latter’s immunitye system is compromised.
Birth spacing is a key health intervention for reducing both maternal and infant mortality. When a woman spaces her pregnancies at least three years apart, she is more likely to have a healthy delivery, and her children are more likely to survive infancy. If a woman becomes pregnant too soon after giving birth, her body does not have time to recover and her risk for complications increases. To be able to space her pregnancies in the healthiest manner, a woman must have access to safe, modern family-planning services.
Providing family-planning services to a woman is inexpensive, costing approximately $2 a year. The direct and indirect benefits, however, of women planning their families are priceless and
countless: smaller family size, better health for both children and mother, less economic burden on the family, and women’s continued economic contribution to the greater community. By meeting all the unmet need for family planning, maternal mortality rates would drop by a third, and the need for abortion would be reduced significantly. Furthermore, the use of condoms reduces the risk of infection for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases or infections. In particular, access to female condoms is crucial for empowering women to initiate their own protection against these infections.
Economic Barriers
Economic realities and policies can create additional barriers to maternal health. Lack of economic opportunities and quality education as well as the lack of quality, affordable health insurance, contraception and feminine products can all contribute to declines in maternal health.
Women need access to affordable and equitable healthcare programs to thrive economically and to support their families. Health insurance and access to contraception as well as government policies and laws related to reproductive health can support or impede the ability of women to plan and space their pregnancies.
As a church we must advocate – speaking out and standing with women – to eradicate economic barriers that block access for women to affordable, quality, and equitable health care.
Cultural Barriers
Many cultural differences complicate this issue. As people of God we are created uniquely and we have cultural differences that make us diverse. In some areas of the world, Hhaving a large family is a sign of honor in many parts of the world. Having or having many children, especially boys, is a showcase of a man’s virility. There are mMen who expect their wives to bear many children but may not consider or support birth spacing or family planning.
The expectation of giving birth to many children is sometimes based on the traditions and norms of a community. There are societal and familial pressures that can undermine some women’s personal desires regarding her fertility and can adversely affect her health or decision to space and time pregnancies. comes not only from the husband, but also from other family members, particularly the mother-in-law. In some areas of the developing world, the mother-in-law makes the decision regarding contraceptive use. Such societal and familial pressures often conflict with a woman’s personal desires regarding her fertility and can adversely affect her health.
Marrying age also affects maternal health. Child marriage is prevalent in many cultures. Girls marry and begin giving birth in early adolescence. If these young females are not practicing family planning, they could have multiple children before they are physiologically and emotionally maturetheir 20th birthday. Young women not fully developed physically at the time of marriage are at great risk for complications such as obstetric fistula, a birth injury that leaves them incontinenta tragic childbirth injury caused by prolonged, obstructed labor without access to timely, high-quality medical treatment. This can leave women leaking urine, feces or both and often leads to chronic medical problems, depression, social isolation and deepening poverty.
The Call
Women are crying out for not only their own survival but also the survival of their families and communities. They deserve access to services and care that empower their personal and economic decision-making and development. As a global church, we are called to eradicate systems of oppression and marginalization that inhibit women’s well-being.
Recommendations
We therefore call upon all local congregations toUnited Methodists to:
BULLET Support United Methodist projects around the world working on maternal health and family planning; Address the root causes of maternal deaths in local contexts which could include addressing access to health services, racism or child marriage;
BULLET Advocate with policy makers at all levels to increase access to maternal health and family-planning services; and
BULLET Support local health initiatives that expand access to information and services for women’s health and projects around the world that include maternal health and family planning;
BULLET Advocate with policy makers at all levels to increase access to maternal health and family-planning services; and
BULLET Create projects in local churches and annual conferences that educate and advocate for women to have access to quality and affordable healthcare programs.
We call upon the General Board of Church and Society to continue placing a programmatic emphasis on education and advocacy for the next quadrennium on maternal health.
Date: August 26, 2019
The Rev. Susan Henry-Crowe
General Secretary
Bishop Sally Dyck
President of the Board
General Board of Church & Society
Phone: 202-488-5629
E-mail Address: gso@umcjustice.org