Thursday, April 26, 2007

This gets you thinking, right?

Girls aged 15-19 are twice as likely to die from childbirthas women in their twenties; those under age 15 are five times as likely to die.

"Can a function so perilous that in spite of the best care, it kills thousands of women every year, that leaves at least a quarter of the women more or less invalided, and a majority with permanent anatomic changes of structure, that is always attended by severe pain and tearing of tissues, and that kills 3%-5% of children -- can such a function be called normal?"
-- Joseph, B. BeLee, obstetrician, quoted in Wendy Mitchinson, Giving Birth in Canada 1900-1950 (2002) Toronto Press, ISBN 0-8020-8471-0, a history of childbirth in Canada

"I believe, as a wage-earning woman, that if I make the great sacrifice of strength and health and even risk my life, to have a child, I should certainly not do so if, on some future occasion, the man can say that the child belongs to him by law and he will take it from me and I shall see it only three times a year! -- lsadora Duncan in her biography, My Life (1927)

World's Top Five Causes Of Disease Burden In Young People And Adults Ages 15-44Female: 1. Maternity 2. Sexually Transmitted Diseases 3. Tuberculosis 4. HIV Infection 5. Depression
Male: 1. HIV Infection 2. Tuberculosis 3. Motor Vehicle Injury 4. Homicide And Violence 5. War

Myth: Most women enjoy being pregnant.Fact: Some women do; some women don't, and for most, it's just not that simple. We tend not to hear as often from the women who don't. Lots of women who are happy about being pregnant and who want their babies dislike or even hate the physical pregnancy itself. And every abortion stands as testament to the fact that women are not merely containers carrying an incidental fetus that with just a little more effort and a small bit of inconvenience just could be carried to term and then given up for adoption.

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