April 19th, 2018 | Updated on May 2nd, 2024
The most important decision maker in a baby’s life is a mother. Going back right to the beginning, it is a mother who decides whether or not to continue with the pregnancy, to take proper care of herself and the child, to respond when a child is sick and to learn to nurture the child in the early years.
This is why a mother’s care does not end with the children simply growing up. A mother has a right to know what is happening to her 30 or 40-year old whom she fondly remembers only as a child. Mothers have more than the right tools and power to see their babies thrive but many lack the right education.
When mothers are given the right education and support both financially and physically, then they can reduce deaths in pregnancy and childbirth, reduce child mortality as well as child malnutrition.
These only happen because mothers lack the right instruments to exercise their power. Whether it is small details like picking a baby stroller from well-known stores like upchoices.com or making a costly decision to stop working and raise children, trust women to handle it with such grace.
Trust Mothers To Make These Choices
1. Learning to read and write – The more educated a woman is, the more likely her children will thrive! Half cases of child deaths occur due to lack of proper education to women. It is not shocking to find more illiterate women than men in the world today.
2. Earning an income – If every mother is given a chance to earn an income, the world at large would be a better place. The employment statistics for women have remained stagnant for many years.
3. Holding leadership positions in the government – Every government in the entire world has only limited slots given to women. If women were allowed more positions, there would be better management of funds and better development.
4. Using contraception – If every mother was allowed to control the number of children she had, she could improve her own health and that of her children. Poor health in women leads to deaths in pregnancy and childbirth that can be easily avoided. Currently, most women do not have access to the right contraceptives.
5. Eating nutritious meals – Every woman should be allowed to eat a healthy balanced diet to keep a well-nourished body. This would, in turn, help pregnant women birth healthy kids who have fewer deformities or health problems. Chronic malnutrition could also be fought at the grassroots level helping children grow up healthy.
6. Breastfeeding as early and often – If all mothers were in a position to breastfeed within an hour of birth, early child deaths would be prevented. Breastfeeding should continue for at least six months exclusively before any food is administered. Most mothers lack the right diet to enable them to produce enough milk while others lack breast pumps at home and at work.
7. Practice skin to skin care for preterm babies – The number of preterm births is still high and these are one of the leading causes of death in children under the age of five. If mothers are allowed and supported to keep their newborns close by practicing the kangaroo mother care, then thousands of these children could survive. The process of separating mothers from preterm babies is highly widespread and bears poor results.
8. Vaccinating the children – Vaccination is one of the best tools for every mother to use in providing the basic health to each child. It is sad to notice that many children still lack access to important vaccines that prevent infectious diseases. About 60% of the world’s children population do not still receive the rotavirus and pneumococcal vaccines.
9. Educating the children – If mothers are given the right kind of knowledge, they are able to influence their children as early. The first three years of a child’s life are highly critical for their brain development that later influence the educational performance as well as lifetime earnings. Yet many children do not get the optimum education because the mothers are illiterate themselves.
10. Adopting new technologies – Though technology is on the rise, very few women have access to it. There is still much that needs to be done to see women get access to the technology that can educate them where schools did not.
In essence, if all mothers were supported by men and helped to make vital decisions that concern humankind, there would be less negative events that bring about high rates of poverty, sickness, deaths, inequality, etc. Women are a vital organ in a child’s life and if they are not empowered, many kids’ lives are compromised.
