02-16 TABLE of CONTENTS:
Childbirth Mortality Rates
DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and
EVENTS
QUOTE by
Margaret Sanger.
Maternal Deaths from Pregnancy and Childbirth
A recent World Health Organization study shows
that mortality rates from pregnancy and childbirth are much higher than
previously reported.
In this new study it is shown that 12 women per 100,000
births die in the United States as compared to the previously released
figure of 8 per 100,000 - a reporting correction of more than 30%.
However, the U.S. rate is nothing compared to the
rate of death of African women which is 870 per 100,000 births and estimated
to be even higher in Asian countries.
This study indicates that at least 585,000 women die
from pregnancy-related causes worldwide. Carla Abou-Zahr of the WHO Maternal
Health and Safe Motherhood Program said the 15% increase is due to better
reporting.
And yet less than half the countries of the world
report maternal deaths so the actual number of pregnancy-related deaths
is at least three times as high: probably more than 1.5 MILLION women dying
every year.
Also, there are no guidelines for reporting a death
from pregnancy- related causes. The cause of death could easily be attributed
to something else.
In Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Somalia, Rwanda, Ethiopia
and other African nations, women face a one-in-seven chance of dying from
pregnancy-related complications the report said. The highest rate of maternal
death occurs in Asian which has 61% of the births in the world.
Repeated pregnancies, lack of birth control, and poor
medical care for women are the cited as the causes of the high death rate.
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02-16 DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and
EVENTS
B. 02-16-1879, Mabel Dodge Luhan single-handed
made Taos, New Mexico, a cultural mecca.
B. 02-16-1893, Katherine Cornell regarded as
one of the finest American stage actors
of all time and dubbed "the first lady of the American theatre,"
by several homophobic critics such as George Jean Nathan who tried to fan
trouble between Cornell, Lynne Fontaine (who both married to cover their
lesbianism), and Eva LaGalliene who did not. Cornell's indispensable assistant
was Gertrude Macy Katharines, and she left her considerable fortune to
her longtime housemate Nancy Hamilton. Her most noted roles were as Elizabeth
Barret Browing in the Barretts of Wimpole Street (1930) and as Joan
in Saint Joan (1936). Starred in many Shavian plays.
B. 02-16-1900, Mary E. Switzer, director of
the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation
(1950), first woman to win the prestigious Albert Lasker award.
B. 02-16-1906, Vera Francevna Menchik-Stevenson,
Russo-Anglo chess master who held the
women's world champion title (1927-1944).
B. 02-16-1920, Patti Andrew, lead singer
of the immensely popular Andrew Sisters which sold more than 60 million
records in the 1930's and 1940's and are still being imitated today. Made
a number of Hollywood films. The trio is still being imitated. LaVerne
was the contralto (07-06-1915) and Maxene (01-03-1918) high harmony.
Event 02-16-1944, Sue S. Dauser
is appointed first woman captain in the U.S. Navy.
Event 02-16-1945, Elizabeth W. Peratrovich,
a native Tlingit, won her long fight for civil rights for the First People
in Alaska (1945.) The day was set aside in her honor in 1989.
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QUOTES DU JOUR
SANGER, MARGARET:
"No woman can call
herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself
free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a
mother."
--
Margaret Sanger, 1920
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