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The Silent Killer

Nepal

Childbirth can be a frightening experience for any woman.

But imagine giving birth alone on the floor of a cowshed, six hours away from the nearest hospital or trained midwife.

That is the reality for millions of women in third world countries like Nepal.

Today I met a woman who was in labour for 12 hours without realising she was giving birth.

It is hard to imagine a world where women are not told the simple facts of life, and the gritty details of pregnancy are a shameful secret.

One Nepalese saying goes: "A pregnant woman is like a cow stuck in a ditch."

Thousands of women are stuck in the remote villages that litter the rocky Himalayas.

The windswept mountains of Nepal are a tough place for anyone to live, but it is especially difficult for women.

This is a world where women do 95 per cent of the domestic work, and 60 per cent of the farming.

Many of the men have gone to work in India, leaving their wives alone to bring up a family and keep the farm going – and bringing back a plague of STDs when they come home.

Pregnancy is a silent killer in Nepal – shattering families as children are left motherless, or women are left childless.

The nearest hospitals are often a grueling six hour trek through mountainous, rocky terrain – so many women do not have a choice whether to give birth at home or in hospital.

Maternal deaths are almost entirely preventable – 0.14 women die in the UK for every 100,000 births.

Unlike big killers like HIV, saving a woman's life through child birth needs just one skilled doctor or nurse with some basic equipment.

A woman's basic right to a safe pregnancy and childbirth is finally being recognized – with the high profile support of Sarah Brown and Naomi Campbell.

But it is up to the world to wonder why this silent killer has not received more funding and recognition in the past – and why the fight for the most basic of women's rights is only just beginning.

 

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