Children of the lesser god

Q&A: Petra Ten Hoope-Bender

Petra Ten
Hoope-Bender

"Lives in the Balance", the conference on maternal, newborn and child health taking place at the Maurya Sheraton, New Delhi from 7- 9 April, will see officials from WHO, UNICEF, The World Bank, Save the Children and other international organisations as well as government officials and ministers of health of many countries gather in the capital.

Samyukta Bhowmick met with Petra ten Hoope-Bender, an executive officer of Partnership for Safe Motherhood and Newborn Health, a WHO iniative, and key speaker at the conference, to find out more.

What are you hoping this conference will accomplish?

The conference is called "Lives in the Balance", and this describes the issue perfectly. People are dying needlessly and invisibly all over the world, simply for want of basic health care facilities that most people take for granted.

If there is a way to change, this will be to make people aware of this issue, to insert the finances needed, but also the resources "" the health institutions and so on.

At the end of the conference, we hope to have a list of directives, an embodiment of the commitments and outcomes reached, called the Delhi Declaration, which we will present to Sonia Gandhi.

What do you feel has to be done in order to reach your targets?

We're meeting with the ministers of health of many countries so that what we discuss will not simply be wasted talk "" we want to provide them with what they need, not what we think they need.

But ultimately, and keeping in mind the Millennium Development Goals, I think what is most needed are basic health institutions on the ground, where people live (which is not a difficult proposition), and a greater awareness of the issue, to accomplish which we're targeting the media in developing countries.

What is the situation on the ground in India?

The reduction of child mortality and improvement in maternal health are major goals in the Millennium Declaration, to which India is a signatory. Today, though there has been an increase in institutional deliveries, around 65 per cent of deliveries are still conducted at home.

Ten per cent of newborns do not make it to the age of five and India has the highest maternal mortality in the world. And most of the causes for these deaths, especially in rural India (and this is the case with most developing countries), are very avoidable.

Also, abortions are the third leading single cause of maternal mortality. There are clearly many socio-cultural factors as well, which we unfortunately will not be able to cover in the conference.

What is the greatest resource needed at this moment?

Without question, human resources. Eighty five per cent of women have normal deliveries "" we don't need expensive hospitals or equipment to ensure their health and the health of their babies, we just need the community to get involved; to come together as a catchnet.

We need community health workers, midwives, trained care providers and so on. Yes, we do need comprehensive health systems, especially for the other 15 per cent, and to provide a catchnet overall, and this will entail all the other things that go with it, for example clean water, sanitation and so on, but if we could get the community involved and aware, this would be a large part of the battle.