Under 5s

In Lesotho, and I imagine most of sub-Saharan Africa, there is a special term for infants and toddlers: under 5s. Many clinics and hospitals have an “Under 5s” day every week to check on babies’ health and give available vaccinations. After reading about Lesotho and/or sub-Saharan Africa and living here, it’s obvious this term exists because so many babies don’t make it to the age of 5. I fear I may have already written on this subject, but it has been haunting my thoughts for the last month and so would like to write a blog post about it…

Amidst the relatively new and popular concern over HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, the age-old issue of malnourished and dying babies and children is still a huge contributor to deaths here. As many of you know, my ausi’s baby died last year around this time… I still don’t know the cause of death. I also have a friend who has had four children die before they reached the age of 2, and her 1-year old son is often sick and looks much younger than other children his age. She finally just tested for HIV, found out she was positive, and went on ARV treatment along with her son. Recently I witnessed a sick baby die as its mother waited for transport to the nearest hospital. Even more recently, my PCV friend’s young ausi had a pre-mature baby that died a few weeks after it was born. The poor girl married the boy who got her pregnant, as is custom when the parents know who the father is, only to have that baby die. Currently she’s in the hospital for a sickness that nobody can explain…

The thing that bothers me lately about this deadly trend is the mothers. It’s common for mothers to lose a child, if not many, whether it’s HIV, malnutrition, pre-mature birth, or a number of other diseases in Lesotho. Most of the mothers just don’t know any better. They’re too young or ignorant to take care of themselves, let alone another life that’s so fragile and needy. But mostly I think of the guilt and suffering that the mother endures when her baby dies. How do so many African women handle that burden, often alone, when most women in the States need years of counseling after a child’s death? The answer is clear—they suffer alone because they have to. Women don’t have money for grief counseling; they don’t even have money to keep their babies alive. And the few counselors that exist in Lesotho, often untrained and impatient anyway, could never handle the number of mothers suffering from the loss of their child. The event of a woman’s child dying is so common that it isn’t given proper attention within the Basotho culture.

Within this pretext, I am honored to be working at LPPA, Lesotho Planned Parenthood Association. This organization offers contraception to women who either aren’t ready to be a mother or don’t want any more mouths to feed. Currently we are also educating women and girls about family planning: what is it, and why is it important in Lesotho? And of course we are teaching girls about their own bodies, their rights, reasons to wait to have sex, and contraception if you can’t wait. Important messages for young girls so they won’t be young mothers. One of my wishes for Lesotho is that the idea of birth control catches on so young women and girls don’t have “unwanted pregnancy” and sick women don’t give birth to sick babies that will likely die before age 2.