Coordinator's Note

Sunday, 29 May 2011 00:00

Child Mortality

Photo for illustration only. Did you know? Every day, more than 22,000 children under five die, mostly from preventable causes. A major U. N. Millennium goal is the elimination of child mortality. Its objective is to reduce the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015.¹ While the child mortality rate has been declining in many countries,² it remains an issue of social concern. The United States, e.g., has a children mortality rate of 6.8 of 1000 children under age 5.³ The problem of child mortality often stems from the lack of proper prenatal care for mothers as well as the absence of necessary health services for the child after birth.

The welfare of children is an essential part of the praxis of Christian faith. In a culture of life, caring for children is an expression of love and respect for their inviolable dignity and worth. While this is true for all children, it “becomes all the more urgent the smaller the child is and the more it is in need of everything, when it is sick, suffering or handicapped.”⁴ Christians, therefore, need to ensure that our young children in their early years of life receive essential health care in order to fully develop physically and mentally as God’s children.

Br. Warren Perrotto, MSC

JPIC Coordinator

Sources:

http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/goals/gti.htm
http://www.wrsc.org/story/study-finds-big-decrease-global-child-mortality
http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=sp_dyn_imrt_in&idim=country:USA&dl= en&hl =en&q=infant+mortality+rate
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, no. 244

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JPIC Corner: Latest Issue

Each day in the United States, 1,487 babies are born pre term.

Each year in the United States, about 28,000 children die before their first birthday.

Every minute, a woman dies of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth (2005 data).

For every woman who dies from a pregnancy-related cause, around 20 experience injury, infection, disease and disabilities.

In the USA, 1 or 2 women still die each day from pregnancy complications. Worldwide, over a million children lose their mothers to pregnancy/childbirth related complications every year.