Celebration of “Mother’s Night”:

May 10th 2008

Mother’s Day
Origin of Mother’s Day goes back to the ancient Greeks and Romans where early Christians celebrated this day in honor of the Virgin Mary. Later, in England the holiday was expanded to include all mothers and Mothering Sunday used to be celebrated annually to honor mothers. Today Mother’s Day is celebrated in several countries to pay tribute to mothers and thank them for all their love and support.
In Pakistan this day is celebrated in the month of May. WPF is going to hold a Mother’s Night on May 10, 2008 to honor all the mothers in Pakistan with a theme of “Safe Motherhood” with an aim to highlight the contributions of mothers (women) in the development of a society.

Why “Safe Motherhood”?
Motherhood should be a time of expectation and joy for a woman, her family, and her community. For women in developing countries, however, the reality of motherhood is often grim. For them, motherhood is often marred by unforeseen complications of pregnancy and childbirth. Some die in the prime period of their lives and in great distress: from hemorrhage, convulsions, obstructed labor, or severe infection after delivery or unsafe abortion. The health of mothers has been acknowledged to be a cornerstone of public health and attention to unacceptably high level of maternal mortality has been a feature of global health and development discussions since 1980s. However although a few countries have made remarkable progress in the recent years, the reality has not generally rhetoric. Most projects focusing on "Mother Child Health (MCH) do not address the component "M" (Mother) and unfortunately in many the component "W" (Woman) is not given importance at all.

Worldwide, according to an estimate of WHO and UNFPA, it is estimated that 529,000 women die yearly from complications of pregnancy and childbirth—about one woman every minute. Some 99 percent of these deaths occur in developing countries, where a woman's lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy-related complications is 45 times higher than that of her counterparts in developed countries. The worldwide impact of maternal mortality :
2 million maternal orphans
• Children are more likely to die within two years of a maternal death
• 10 times the chance of death for the neonate
• 7 times the chance of death for infants older than one month
• 3 times the chance of death for children 1 to 5 years
Additionally, enrollment in school for younger children is delayed and older children often leave school to support their family

Asia faces 330 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births every year whereas; the total number of deaths is 241,000 annually. These deaths are usually caused by due to obstetric hemorrhage, obstructed labor, obstetric sepsis, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and complications of unsafe abortion.

Pakistan is the sixth most populous country of the world and the third in the Asia region. Women make 48% of the total population. The area of women’s health in Pakistan is relatively less explored and neglected areas of reproductive tract infections, cancers, sexually transmitted infections and domestic violence and mental illnesses. Serious constraints of the reproductive health services are insufficient coverage and poor access in rural areas and in urban slums and particularly among the poor that cannot afford private facilities. Due to inadequate reproductive health services most of the women lose their lives during or after pregnancy.  Some basic facts about the country’s reproductive health situation indicate that more than 20,000 women die each year due to pregnancy-related complications and maternal mortality remains between 300-700 per 100,000 live births. The contraceptive prevalence rate is around 28 percent (2000-2001) – one of the lowest in the region. About 33 percent of married women do not want to have more births after three children, yet do not protect themselves against unwanted pregnancies due to insufficient contraception awareness and services. Nearly 80 percent of deliveries take place at home, most often attended by untrained personnel (Source: Reproductive Health & Family Planning Survey, National Institute of Population Studies, 2002).
For each woman who dies, an estimated 100 women survive childbearing but suffer from serious disease, disability, or physical damage caused by pregnancy-related complications. Long-term consequences of pregnancy-related complications include uterine prolapsed, pelvic inflammatory disease, fistula, incontinence, infertility, and pain during sexual intercourse.
A mother's death carries profound consequences not only for her family, especially her surviving children, but also for her community and country. In some developing countries, if the mother dies, the risk of death for her children under age 5 is doubled or tripled. In addition, because a woman dies during her most productive years, her death has a strong social and economic impact—her family and community lose a productive worker and a primary care giver.

Safe Motherhood is a call to action.
Safe Motherhood begins long before a woman becomes pregnant and requires collaborative actions on the part of the woman, her family, her community, NGOs, the health care system, the government, and other partners. Safe Motherhood will become a reality for all the world's women only when women are respected members of their societies and when the maintenance of their lives and productivity are of value to decision-makers at the national level and within families. Women's health and status will improve where there are opportunities for full participation in social and economic development, support for their education and skill development, and community-based actions to ensure access to health care, which are among the many actions needed.

Objectives:

• To raise awareness among masses on Safe Motherhood
• To draw attention of Policy makers and other stakeholders for their cooperation for policy reforms.

Process:
Following are the proposed segments to be carried out during the celebration of the event

Panel discussions

To talk about safe motherhood and its current status in Pakistan, parliamentarians, NGO representatives, gynecologist, government representatives and mothers will participate in a panel discussion followed by question answer session.

Classical dance (on pregnancy related issues)

For entertainment as well as to present a message in an aesthetic manner, a renowned classical dancer- Mr. Fasih-ur- Rehaman will perform focusing on a relationship of a mother with her children…throughout her life.  

Theatre Performance ( Maternal Mortality – Ajoka)

The theatre group Ajoka will present

Maternal Mortality – a video on family's role in making pregnancy safer

The 5 minutes song by Shafqat Imanat Ali emphasizes on the role of a family in making pregnancy a healthy and joyful experience for a woman. It highlights the positive role men has to play as  partners in planned parenthood.

Timeline:
The programme will start in second half and will last for 4 hours.

Participants:

• Pregnant Parents
• Young female students and teachers
• Civil Society Organizations
• Policy makers (MoPW, MoWD and female parliamentarians)
• Media
• Corporate Sector