MOTHER'S DAY

MOTHER’S DAY

Mother's Day is a modern celebration honoring one's own mother, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the months of March or May
Philadelphia activist Anna Jarvis (1864-1948) came up with the idea for “Mother’s Day” at the beginning of the 20th century as a tribute to her mother.
On May 10, 1908, in what is considered the first Mother’s Day celebration, she sent 500 carnations to Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, her mother’s church in Grafton, W.Va. (which was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1992).
The event generated an enormously positive response, and after extensive lobbying and letter-writing efforts, President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation on May 9, 1914, declaring the second Sunday of May “a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.” Read his message here:

It all started in the 1850s, when West Virginia women's organizer Ann Reeves Jarvis—Anna's mother—held Mother's Day work clubs to improve sanitary conditions and try to lower infant mortality by fighting disease and curbing milk contamination, according to historian Katharine Antolini of West Virginia Wesleyan College. The groups also tended wounded soldiers from both sides during the U.S. Civil War from 1861 to 1865.
In the postwar years Jarvis and other women organized Mother's Friendship Day picnics and other events as pacifist strategies to unite former foes. Julia Ward Howe, for one—best known as the composer of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"—issued a widely read "Mother's Day Proclamation" in 1870, calling for women to take an active political role in promoting peace.
Around the same time, Jarvis had initiated a Mother's Friendship Day for Union and Confederate loyalists across her state. But it was her daughter Anna who was most responsible for what we call Mother's Day—and who would spend most of her later life fighting what it had become.

Anna Jarvis was the driving force behind the first Mother's Day observances in 1908(photo)

On average, one woman in 30 is likely to die from pregnancy-related causes, and seven out of 10 women will lose a child in their lifetime.
Despite global improvements in children's and maternal health, inequality between the world's riIndia scored 140th place out of 179 countries in the charity organization Save the Children's 2015 report titled "State of the World's Mothers". The annual global ranking is conducted by a charity organisation, Save the Children. Relegating three spots further from 137 in 2014 to 140 in 2015, India is behind countries such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the index.
 The index is measured using five indicators - maternal health (lifetime risk of maternal death), children's well-being (under-5 mortality rate per 1,000 live births), educational status (expected number of years of formal schooling), economic status (gross national per capita income), political status (participation of women in national government).The total indicators are given below,

 [i]Lifetime risk of maternal death

[ii]Percent of women using modern contraception

[iii]skilled attendant at delivery Female life expectancy

[iv] Expected number of years of formal female schooling

[v] Ratio of estimated female to male earned income

[vi] Maternity leave benefits

[vii] Participation of women in national government

[viii]Under-5 mortality rate

[ix]Percentage of children under age 5 moderately or severely underweight

[x] Gross pre-primary enrollment ratio

[xi] Gross primary enrollment ratio

[xii]Gender parity index

[xiii]Gross secondary enrollment ratio

[xiv]Percent of population with access to safe water

Norway is top of the list of the index, while Somalia has the worst mother's index based on the organisation's findings.The richest and poorest mothers and children is widening,

This Mother’s Day, let’s hope that we fare better on each of these factors and move north in the 2015 rankings, making our country mother and child friendly. Here are some organizations that are putting their best foot forward for mothers and children.

 Gates Foundation has a dedicated program for maternal and neonatal health – Maternal, Newborn & Child Health program. The program’s is on mission to ensure that women and newborns survive and remain healthy during pregnancy and childbirth and to improve health outcomes for young children. Gates Foundation has been working towards tying together tools, technology, and treatments to better healthcare services and practices, and advocate for comprehensive national and global policies that benefit maternal, newborn, and child survival and health. Their continual efforts to bring about a change in this sphere are currently ongoing in Ethiopia, northern Nigeria, and the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. These geographies are responsible for the majority of world’s maternal and newborn deaths. CARE – CARE has committed itself to helping woman enjoy their fundamental right – access to quality sexual, reproductive and maternal health. Their efforts to alleviate these conditions will also help in gender equality. CARE realizes that “right to health” can’t be achieved by a single institution. In order for a large-scale change in maternal and newborn health, there are host of changes that are needed that include changes in organizations and policies at all levels. They have been working in developing nations with high mortality rates for the past 50 years bringing about change in healthcare services and policies that affect the quality of life of women and children. Biosense – Their first product ToucHb is a needle free anaemia screening tool. Anaemia has been identified as the main culprit in maternal and infant death caused due to complications at birth. Early detection can exponentially reduce these deaths. The device can be easily used in the rural pockets. Institute for Indian Mother and Child (IIMC) is a non-governmental organization founded by Indian physician Dr. S. K. Brahmochary. His vision was to improve the quality of life of the BoP population. The issues of mother and child welfare as well as woman empowerment are of central importance to IIMC. Foundation for Mother and Child work in economically underprivileged communities to provide full access to Preventive Health and Balanced Nutrition. To educate the affected groups about the nutrition, FMCH has awareness programs – Accha Baccha class, pregnancy clubs and community support volunteer program. FMCH works with the main segment hit by malnutrition – children under six, mainly under three and pregnant & lactating women. FMCH also helps parents in understand the nutritional needs of a child. They regularly collect data to closely monitor the progress made by the affected segment. Apne Aap Women’s Collective works with trafficked marginalized brothel based prostitutes, their daughters, other marginalized girls and children in the red light district to ensure that they don’t fall trap to inter-generational prostitution. They run three programs: ‘Umeed’ for women in brothel-based prostitution(ages 18+), ‘Udaan’ for daughters of Umeed members and other girls living in the red light area (ages six-18), and ‘Umang’ for toddlers of ‘Umeed’ members and other children living in the red light area (ages two-five). Bempu Two major causes of newborn deaths are hypothermia and infection. Surprisingly, the simple step of monitoring temperature is often overlooked in areas that house uneducated parents or areas that have medical facilities that are short on manpower. BEMPU is developing an intuitive neonatal temperature monitor that empowers mothers to better manage their newborn’s temperature thereby preventing such death and illness. Embrace Innovations is a social enterprise working to help millions of vulnerable babies through its revolutionary low-cost infant warmers. The ‘Embrace infant warmer’ is an award winning product that has already reached 1,50,000 babies across 10 countries! Child in Need Institute (CINI) is an international humanitarian organisation aimed at promoting “sustainable development in health, nutrition and education of child, adolescent and woman in need” in India. CINI’s India wing is headquartered in Kolkata and is working in some of the most impoverished communities in India. Seva Mandir has been working in rural Rajasthan for the past 45 years. They currently work with 360,000 people in 700 of the world’s poorest communities where people live on an average of $0.35 a day. The work on a host of issues – clean drinking water, food self-sufficiency, education (preschool to primary education), women empowerment and maternal and infant health services. Access: In the recent times, there have been health reforms but have increased access to facility based maternal and newborn care, but there has been no significant improvement in outcomes for mothers and infants. The critical success factor in making a significant change lies in the enabling medical facilities to provide high quality care. ACCESS Health India works directly with providers to identify, share, and scale hospital processes and procedures that lead to better outcomes for mothers and their children. Ayzh is a for-profit social venture providing health and livelihood solutions to impoverished women worldwide. Their first product ‘Janma’, a low-cost birth kit, was launched in 2010. It is complaint with World Health Organization’s guideline for a safe and hygienic birth.