More on Chilean Study

Dear ProLife Colleague, Monday we sent you a very limited summary of the outstanding and potentially revolutionary study by Elard Koch, et al, on the progress in Chile over the past 50 years in decreasing Maternal Mortality. This is a truly pro-life, pro-women’s health message. Become familiar with it. Note: on the U.N. and international level, loud voices cry that unlimited access to “safe” abortion is a vital answer to maternal mortality. AAPLOG suggests that education of women, plus initiatives to deal with the main killers of new mothers–hemorrhage, infection, and toxemia/ecclampsia– is the logical point of attack on the problem of maternal mortality-and it is a really horrible problem. Please find a more complete statement on the study by the study’s author at: https://www.aaplog.org/complications-of-induced-abortion/induced-abortion-and-maternal-mortality/women%E2%80%99s-education-level-maternal-health-facilities-abortion-legislation-and-maternal-deaths-a-natural-experiment-in-chile-from-1957-to-2007/ Conclusion by Elard Koch, the main author: Taken together, the Chilean natural experiment over the last fifty years suggests that the progress on maternal health in developing countries is a function of the following factors: an increase in the educational level of women, complementary nutrition for pregnant women and their children in the primary care network and schools, universal access to improved maternal health facilities (early prenatal care, delivery by skilled birth attendants, postnatal care, availability of emergency obstetric units and specialized obstetric care); changes in women’s reproductive behaviour enabling them to control their own fertility; and improvements in the sanitary system ―i.e. clean water supply and sanitary sewer access. Furthermore, it is confirmed that women’s educational level appears to have an important modulating effect on other variables, especially promoting the utilization of maternal health facilities and modifying the reproductive behaviour. Consequently, it is proposed that these strategies outlined in different MDGs and implemented in different countries may act synergistically and rapidly to decrease maternal deaths in the developing world.