Too many women are still dying in childbirth
Former top model is on a mission to help raise awareness of maternal mortality, writes Angela Baura
After a harrowing 36 hours delivering her daughter, Michelle Thompson faced yet another complication. Her cervix tightened so much that she suffered a retained placenta. It was a potentially life-threatening development as the tissue, if left untreated, could have become infected and led to haemorrhage. After discussing the options with her doctor, Thompson decided on surgery to remove the placenta.
"I was very relieved to be in a hospital that had the facilities to deal with my condition," Thompson says of her experience at the Matilda International Hospital four years ago. Thompson's sentiments echo those of former supermodel Christy Turlington Burns, who suffered post-partum haemorrhage after giving birth to her first child in 2003.
"While frightening and totally unexpected, my complication was managed throughout by a midwife, and eventually the obstetrician who backed her," says Turlington Burns. "I later discovered that thousands of girls and women around the world die from the same cause, because they don't have access to the services that could save their lives."
That discovery prompted Turlington Burns to research issues of global maternal health. She went on to make the documentary which tells the stories of mothers from Bangladesh to Tanzania and the US. The two-year film project led her to found Every Mother Counts (EMC), a non-profit organisation that aims to promote education about maternal health, and to support efforts in reducing maternal mortality around the world.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 287,000 women died in childbirth in 2010, the overwhelming majority of them (99 per cent) in developing countries. About 80 per cent of maternal deaths are due to post-partum haemorrhage, infections, high blood pressure during pregnancy, and unsafe abortions.
Post-partum haemorrhage - defined as loss of greater than 500ml of blood following vaginal delivery, or 1,000ml of blood following a caesarean section - can occur up to six weeks after birth, says Dr Alex Doo, an obstetrics and gynaecology specialist at Matilda. But if recognised early, the problem can be managed by blood transfusion and aggressively reversing the impaired ability to clot.
