While childbirth is a normal part of most women's lives and a process which usually proceeds without any real risk, for the world's poorest women this is often not the case. Poverty, malnutrition, female genital mutilation, child marriage and AIDS put these women in a high risk bracket from Day 1 of their pregnancies. To make matters worse, when things go wrong they often have no easy access to healthcare, when they get to a clinic or hospital skilled staff may not be available or, if they are, the drugs and equipment they need may well not be at their disposal. War, natural disasters and a lack of infrastructure, not to mention corruption and entrenched cultural attitudes which are not sympathetic towards the challenges women face present yet more problems. In this book the author, an obstetrician gynaecologist with extensive experience of working in developing countries, provides an insight into these and other problems by telling individual women's stories. Each account highlights a different problem.
For this special study edition university lecturer and teacher Sylvie Donna has written questions to go with each account to help facilitate reflection and discussion; the questions can either be used for personal study or by tutors in seminars; the book's index will help students complete assignments, think through issues and develop potential solutions. Work which is already being carried out to help vulnerable populations is also outlined by the author, Dr Jean Chamberlain Froese, who founded the Canadian charity Save the Mothers, and by her husband, freelance journalist Thomas Froese. Where relevant, statistics are also provided so as to give readers a clearer picture of the real situation facing women and healthcare providers in some of the world's poorest countries.