Happy Mother’s Day?
Two mothers caring for their newborn children.
Recently, while attending an organ concert in the church of a small town, I happened to sit across from a most beautiful Madonna statue. The music - played by an artist unknown to me - was most inspiring too. Music and view made my thoughts wander to the upcoming Mother’s Day. I asked myself:
Why do we still need a single day per year to focus on our own mothers?
Should they not be a permanent focus?
My thoughts then wandered on to a recent article on the BBC website reporting on blind women in India screening for early breast cancers with their fingers taking advantage of the increased tactile sense related to their blindness. They are called Medical Tactile Examiners (MET). Quite amazing! No data regarding sensitivity available but being researched as a potentially more systematic screening tool. No mammography screening in India. METs instead? I couldn’t help but think: Amazing? Yes! But then - the blind screening for cancer? In 2023?
Can we not do better?
To this day, the majority of mothers in the world have no access to any form of breast cancer screening. 1 in 8 gets that disease. For so many, it is a death sentence. In 2022, breast cancer became the most common cancer in the world (both sexes combined) - and it affects women significantly.
Are we (almost literally) turning a blind eye on women, on our mothers?
In developed countries, we have mammography (now almost universally recommended annually for women 40 and older). Mammography screening is hard to translate globally due to the large expensive machinery especially to developing countries. However, ultrasound is not. Handheld ultrasound is (or at least can be) available everywhere even in the most remote corners of the world. We know we can indeed screen for early breast cancer disease with ultrasound avoiding cancers being detected at later incurable stages. Not as good as Mammography, but still better than nothing. So, we CAN do better.
SHOULD we not be doing much, much better for our mothers?
Should we not at least try harder?
Then, I remembered the latest statistics on maternal mortality (the number of women dying during pregnancy/childbirth). I had read just a few days ago - it is rising again both in the United States and in the Philippines. It jumped by about a third! In the Philippines, the increase reversed decades of a downward trend, and is now 2.5 times the value recommended by the UN 2030 SDG for the Philippines. We do have the tools to prevent most of these deaths.
Why don’t we do better for our moms?
At LMI, we focus on this maternal mortality. We are gaining momentum (now planning for intervention at 4 municipalities in the Philippine Islands starting in 2024). As younger women are increasingly afflicted by breast cancer, it’s obvious that at some point, we will have to include cancer prevention in our work.
Every single person has a mother. Would addressing their most fundamental health issues not make celebrating our Mother's Day much happier than before?
Come and join us. We can help keep moms healthy!
