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Post by Kathryn on Dec 14, 2009 18:48:22 GMT -5
I know I wouldn't talk enough if I signed up, so that's why I'm not bothering. Anyway, I came across this news article today, and I think it might help show the issues with big families at a more national level. It's about Africa, not the USA, but the basics are close enough. Anyway, look here, or, if that link doesn't work, I'll just put it here: news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/3374340 Same story, just not sure on the VBoard coding.
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Post by jemand on Dec 14, 2009 20:20:40 GMT -5
wow, thanks for the link
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Post by rosa on Dec 16, 2009 0:43:59 GMT -5
Wow, that's amazing - 41% would like to use birth control but aren't/can't? That's terrible.
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Post by susan on Jan 17, 2010 17:36:14 GMT -5
I hate to say it, but even the female health workers seem to have a patronizing attitude toward their fellow-women.
The part where one woman expressed her belief that birth control could cause her to have a deformed child, and the health worker shot her a disapproving look -- that just kind of made my stomach turn.
Why not respond to the actual concern being expressed? Maybe she did, but the way it was shared in the article, it almost sounded like she just kind of tried to silence the "dissenter" with a disapproving look.
Being a breastfeeding activist/lacitivist, I've done a lot of reading about the horrid ways in which the Nestle company used health workers in poor African countries, and other third world countries, to teach poor mothers the "modern" and "scientific" and "American" way of feeding babies ...
And this killed a lot of babies, since mothers would be given all this free formula to take home from the hospital, and then they'd run out and not have any money to buy more -- but by this time their milk would be dried up --
So babies died due to inadequate nutrition due to watered-down forumula, contaminated water, and also due to the loss of the maternal antibodies that helped them resist disease.
I wouldn't blame these women for not being too trusting of health workers. And if these workers just glare at them to try to silence them, rather than responding to them as intelligent human beings with legitimate concerns, then how on earth are they earning these women's trust?
Of course, I realize one interchange between one woman and healthcare worker, doesn't tell the whole story. It just gives me a "feeling" that maybe some African women can give some legitimate reasons for not trusting health workers, you know?
By the way, if you get pregnant while using hormonal contraception, ISN'T there some risk for genetic defects?
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Post by jemand on Jan 17, 2010 21:33:40 GMT -5
not due to the hormones, no. There's always a risk of birth defects no matter what you do.
ETA: I will say though, that all medication has a risk to the people taking them, and severe side effects are possible with birth control. Additionally, health care for any side effects is going to be extremely limited in a poorer society, so the average African woman would have less recourse if something were to go wrong. That said though, pregnancy is *way* more likely to go horribly wrong than birth control, and in some countries, maternal mortality can be 2% of all births. That's about a million times more prevalent than in developed countries, and similarly huge compared with any birth control risks.
But that doesn't mean birth control side effects are nothing, and I really wonder what long term damage is done from having limited and scattered health providers such as is common for poor Africans. But by far the easiest deaths to prevent would be those women who would have died in pregnancy and don't want to be pregnant in the first place.
As for Nestle, well, birth control isn't as much something that builds a dependency like milk, and I don't think it's as lucrative (it's almost always donated, anyway). If anything, Nestle has an incentive to undermine birth control in Africa so as to make money selling it's milk through the terrible business practices you outlined.
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Post by susan on Jan 17, 2010 22:41:49 GMT -5
Yes, I see your point that there's a big difference between pushing forumula and promoting birth control. And, as I've said before, I realize that reading about one interchange between a health worker and some women, doesn't tell the whole story. But just that little snippet made me feel like it was less about empowerment and more about telling women what to do -- if that makes sense? It also seemed kind of invasive that the worker had all of the women who were using contraception raise their hands -- but maybe this isn't seen as a personal issue like it is here in America (except for when you meet nosy strangers who rudely say, "Haven't you figured out what causes that?" ). So I'll try not to be too American-centric in making these judgments ... I'm just sharing my feeling that I HOPE the medical professionals in Africa aren't acting just like the Catholic Church, and telling people exactly how to handle their sexuality and fertility. I mean, I understand that the health workers are saying the opposite, in the sense of being pro-condom to prevent the spread of disease among people who don't have a committed partner, and pro-contraception for the women who want it. I hope they're focusing on empowerment -- and NOT on getting women to do whatever they (the medical professionals) think they should do. Empowerment means providing access to information and resources, and encouraging women to make their own decisions. I hope that's what is happening there. And not more patriarchal-crap.
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Post by jemand on Jan 17, 2010 22:55:03 GMT -5
well, at the very least, they aren't going to be telling people god will smite them if they don't do as they say But I get your point. And I also hope they are treating these women as their patients, as real, complex people, and not the next widget in a conveyor belt that must be "fixed" to create their image of a "good" society, or something like that.
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