Losing Children

A couple of the women that I talked with at the conference talked about how all of their children died. A few of them raised an orphan as their child. But it got me wondering, how can all your children die? Is their knowledge of heath care and access to health care really that terrible? Yet, as with all parents, I am sure these mothers did all possible to help their children in life. The mothers here have an average of 7+ births. When looking at stats in our country, I found it is listed as the hardest place in the world to be a mother.

Then I had a conversation with one mother who had shared that she has three living children and that four of her babies born are now heaven. She had her 2 year old son at the conference with her and he was fussy, so I was asking about him. She said he had a fever, headache, stomach ache, and diarrhea. It was pretty easy to tell he was miserable and her patience was running out quickly in trying to make him comfortable and not succeeding. Then it was shared that he has sickle cell anemia and my heart completely broke for this mother and her children. How difficult to continue caring for your children through such pain and such a short life span! Reports for life expectancy with sickle cell anemia in Africa are from 5 years to less than 20 years. It gave me a better understanding another battle so many of these women are facing when raising their children. Sickle cell is probably one of the reasons some of these mothers have all their children die. And although I love to solve problems, this is just one of those things that is painful about living here.  It seems that accompanying people through the joys and sorrows and offering prayers are the biggest things that I can do.

-- La Maestra