Guest Author: Save The Children

In the urban slums of Delhi, India, Chotti lost three babies shortly before they were born. During all three pregnancies, she did not receive any prenatal care, and the deliveries took place at home without a skilled birth attendant.

However, when Chotti became pregnant for a fourth time, her neighbors told her to go see Rima, a Save the Children community health volunteer where both women live. Like a wise older sister to Chotti, Rima coached her on when and where to go for prenatal checkups, how to have better nutrition, and danger signs to watch for. Rima accompanied Chotti to the hospital, and helped her register so she could have her birth there.

“In the hospital, the baby was born properly,” the new mother said. “If I had gone to the hospital before, my other children would have survived.”

Chotti’s tremendous challenges to become a mother, sadly, are commonplace among those living in poverty in Delhi, where among the poorest 20 percent of women in this city, only 27 percent receive prenatal care, and only 19 percent have a skilled attendant at birth. Statistics like these – in a city where the affluent enjoy a very high standard of living – make Delhi one of the most unequal cities in the developing world.

Each year, just before Mother’s Day, Save the Children – which works tirelessly to ensure that every child and every mother has a fair chance in life – releases its “State of the World’s Mothers” report, an assessment of the well-being of mothers and children around the world. This year’s report focuses on a vulnerable group of children that urgently needs more attention – those living in urban poverty – as well as the people who have tremendous potential to make a positive difference in their lives – their mothers.

In two-thirds of the countries surveyed in the report, the poorest children in cities are at least twice as likely to die as the richest children. And in a world where increasing numbers of mothers are raising their children in urban areas, this “urban child survival gap” has grown only wider in the past two decades in just about half of the developing nations we surveyed.

And it’s not just in cities in the developing world where Save the Children found stark disparities between the haves and have nots. In our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., a baby born in the lowest-income district, where half of all children live in poverty, is more than 10 times as likely to die before his first birthday as a baby born in the richest part of the city.

This Mother’s Day, along with showing your appreciation for your own mothers and grandmothers, think about giving a gift to under-served mothers everywhere in hard-to-reach populations by donating to Save the Children through the PayPal Giving Fund. When you give to the PayPal Giving Fund, all of the transaction fees are on PayPal, and 100 percent of your donation goes to the nonprofit of your choice.

Let’s work together to make sure all mothers like Chotti have the chance to nurture their babies and help them thrive.

“I used to feel sad earlier,” Chotti said. “But now my baby is fine. My heart is happy.”

*Photo Credit: CJ Clarke l Save The Children