All Pregnant Women Deserve Good Care #DifferentPathChallenge

{This is a collaborative post}

When you're pregnant and expecting a baby, the one thing that every woman wants is for that baby to be born healthy, in a safe environment.  We all share in this basic right, every woman being the same. Where you live shouldn't be a factor as to whether that child lives or dies, or in fact, whether you live or die. There is recourse for you, your child, and your family should the unthinkable occur and result in a birth injury. Should that happen, it is important to know that there are empathetic Birth Injury Solicitors in this country who are available to guide you and help you every step of the way.

In Togo, West Africa, 1 in every 20 babies (1) will die before their first birthday. This is the equivalent of you going to your local toddler group and knowing that one or two of those babies won't be here in the next year. Just think how shocking that would be, thankfully in the UK, it isn't every week we hear of a baby dying.

In the UK our figures are quite different, with only 1 in 250 babies (1) not surviving their first birthday. So what's the difference, why are those babies in Togo not surviving? The quick answer is poverty, most families can not afford to access good healthcare or buy enough food. This means birth complications, infections and malnutrition are responsible for claiming far too many little lives.

I don't want to linger on these sad facts for too long though, as us being sad doesn't actually help anyone. What does help, is us using what we have to donate to programs that make a difference to these mothers. Compassion (a charity I have been supporting on a monthly basis for around 15 years) has 1520 Child Survival projects worldwide, with 52 of these being in Togo.

International Day of the Girl - Advice to my Teenage Self #AdviceforGirls

Sorry for the image quality but when you are dealing with pictures taken in 1990 before the digital camera was even around, you tend to find they aren't the best quality. The above is me aged 17 years; I'm on holiday in Corfu with my (then) boyfriend. 

Today, on International Day of the Girl Compassion UK asked me to share a picture of myself aged 15 years old and I didn't have one to hand, this is as long ago as I can access, so it will have to do. The idea is to share the advice I would give to my teenage self, so here goes....

Hey Mich, You're just a teenager still and already you have been on a number of diets and berated yourself for the way you look, but come on... just take a good look at that image above, you are gorgeous, you are brilliant and you are filled with potential. 

What I want you to know is that you are so much more than a body and a face. Please don't take any notice of what you see in the magazines, what you overhear the popular girls say about you, what the boys at the youth club or at school whisper about you, or even what you hear well-meaning relatives say when they think you're not listening. You are amazing!

In Psalm 139 God tells you that He knows you, inside and out, that He sees you, that you are fearfully and wonderfully made and that most importantly, you can never escape Him or His love for you. You don't need to meet societies expectations for beauty, because you already meet Gods. 

Mich, you are enough. God knows it, you need to believe it and live it. Please don't waste your time striving to be thinner, to be browner, to fit in or to be liked. Be uniquely you Mich, that is how God made you and He doesn't make mistakes. 

Have you got any idea how well this body will serve you in life? It will carry you to Ethiopia, Belarus and Washington as an advocate and activist working to help put an end to extreme poverty. It will birth three amazing and unique little beings. It will be a friend to many and help dozens of people, as a friend, volunteer and co-worker. 

Please don't waste another minute worrying Mich. God tells you not to be anxious  but to present your requests to Him in prayer and thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6-7). So the best thing you could do, right now, aged 17 years old is turn your life over to Christ and come to know His never-ending love for you.

He's got your back Mich! Just believe it.......

Of course today, many girls the world over, are worrying about their body and their beauty, just like I did and have done for many, many years. But as well as these kinds of worries like |I had, there are also girls in so many countries who are worrying about much bigger issues, like where to get clean water or their next meal from, or perhaps who their husband will be when they marry at age 15 or 16.

Research from NGO Save the Children showed that Brazil is the worst country in South America in terms of girls development opportunities. It scores 102 out of 144 countries and the data is based on teenage marriage, teenage pregnancy and those girls completing secondary education.

Given these facts, Compassion UK chooses Brazil as the focus for their Handbook for Girls campaign, which is hoping to educate teenage girls there and change the amount of them dropping out of education early.

Image thanks to Compassion UK

Launched this summer, the campaign aims to raise £20,000 so that all 10,000 girls in Compassion's church-based projects in Brazil receive a Handbook with vital information on health, education, relationships and employment. The Handbooks are being developed by Compassion Brazil’s programme staff in partnership with child development experts, including psychologists and education professionals, and are aimed at girls aged 12-20 years.

What’s more, church partners will receive training in how best to support girls in the topics covered in the Handbook and boys will participate in workshops on the value of women. Each book costs just £2 to produce and distribute, which I think is a great use of such little money.

If you think what Compassion are doing in Brazil is important then I'd urge you to text EMPOWER to 70140 to give £4 and change the life of two girls in Brazil and visit Compassion UK for more information and the text-to-donate terms and conditions. 

Thanks for getting involved friends. It might not seem a lot we can do from the comfort of our warm homes here in the UK, but as I always maintain, every small action adds up and creates a ripple of change that one day will be so big it makes a monumental difference.

Super Lucky to be Here: Happy Mothering Sunday #isurvived

JJ, my boy who made me Mummy

Happy Mothering Sunday Friends. I wish every woman out there an amazing day, be she a mother herself or a mother figure. This day isn't only to be celebrated and enjoyed by those who have given birth it is also for those who selflessly offer their heart and soul loving others in the way a mother often does.

This is the 16th Mothering Sunday that I have celebrated. Of course JJ isn't actually that old yet but my hubby bought a card from the bump (AKA JJ) back in March 2003, seven months before he was even born. I remember being so thrilled to receive that first card and some flowers (if I remember rightly) as it was the start of my maternal journey, having thought previous to this that I might never have children.

I do remember feeling very special when I was pregnant but I had quite a lot of sickness for the first few months and I just looked extra fat rather than glowing with a perky bump. I did then get about four good months with JJ just before he was born but then stupidly I decided it would be great to have him in September rather than October, as was his due date. So I cleared and cleaned the house and then started to gut the garage. I remember I worked like a Trojan and it was very satisfying, well up to the point when I saw my midwife that afternoon and she started to worry about high blood pressure, excessive oedema in my ankles and belly, and protein in my urine.

Yes, it turns out I had pre-eclampsia. I've no idea if all my 'nesting' added to my getting this condition but it surely didn't help it and I was taken off to the hospital that evening for monitoring and a scan. It was decided that they wouldn't let me go too much over my due date and thus I was booked in for an induction on 3rd October 2003 when I would be 40+2 weeks.

Whilst my induction with JJ was a bit of a debacle and took me quite some time to emotionally recover from, I am still enormously grateful that we have the NHS in this country and that when JJ's heart rate kept decelerating, I could have the C-section without any delay. Then when the spinal blocks and epidural didn't work, there was an anaesthetist on hand who was able to give me a general straight away. Luckily JJ was fine and he hadn't swallowed any meconium as was feared and over the next few weeks I healed too.

A great priviledge

I feel incredibly lucky that my family and I can afford to sponsor two children in other countries. Every month we pay £50 to Compassion.org so that two children can be part of a Christian program which enables them to be schooled, enjoy fun activities, attend life skills courses, benefit from supplemental nutrition if they need it and receive gifts on important dates.

I often find that when I mention child sponsorship most people agree that it is a wonderful thing to do and then they quickly tell me how they wish they could afford it. Let me just assure you we are not rich, not by any means. In fact I'm wiling to bet that we earn less than 90% of you reading this but we are all different and we make our own choices and that's OK. So as I say we are not rich, well not in a monetary sense anyway, we are however incredibly rich in all that we have in our life and particularly being able to support these two children.

Carl Henri, from Hiati has been a part of our lives since 2005 and through his letters and photos we have watched him grow and mature. He is now 15 and when his most recent letter arrived I cried as it was such a blessing to hear him say he loved us and prayed for us. He then updated us on his news and asked for prayer and talked about his church and the choir he belongs to. Like us he goes to a Baptist church and it felt special to know we have this common ground. From the immature drawings of a red car that we often used to find on our letters to the letters he now pens himself and requests our prayers in he is growing into a lovely young man.

We also sponsor Priya but this only started in 2012, so this is a relatively new relationship and I feel we are still in the early stages of developing a bond. Priya is 10 and lives in India and we choose her as she shares a birthday with our JJ and my dh had just returned from a mission trip to India.

As a Christian we believe that tithing (or giving) is something which is of the utmost importance and it is something we do before we have met our bills and thought about the 'norms' of our everyday life, like whether the girls can do a dance class (they don't) or JJ can attend judo (he doesn't either, but he hopes to). We like to have the children involved by getting them to do drawings r help to write the letters, this gives them a sense of what is happening in the world and helps them to develop their compassion for others.

We sponsor through Compassion as we are Christians and it is important to us that we invest our money in an organisation that we believe to be honourable and working to the same life principles and ethos as us. Some people are sceptical of child sponsorship programs but there is evidence to suggest the schemes work and certainly we feel comfortable with our decision to spend money in this manner.

Other large reputable providers of child sponsorship include - Plan UK, World Vision and ActionAid

I'd urge you to think about what a difference you could make to a child living in poverty. Some of the schemes start from as little as £3.50 per week.

This post HAS NOT been sponsored in any way.

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Meet Priya, the newest member of our family

As you know we went away to Spring Harvest recently and had an amazing time.  Each year at Spring Harvest we see the stand for Compassion, a Christian charity who work in developing countries to help improve life for the children there. Six years ago was the first time dh and I attended this festival and at that time we decided to sponsor a child, his name is Carl Henri and he lives in Haiti. I have mentioned him before a few times.  It is so rewarding to receive letters and drawings from him and to watch him grow.  We have seen his letters change and mature over the years, just as I imagine he must of, especially with being in the capital when the tragedy happened last year. When we received the news that he was well we were over the moon and then receiving letters from a little fellow who told us he was scared to sleep in case it happened again broke our hearts but we know that, partly due to the work Compassion do in his local community, his family have been able to rebuild their lives again.

Bloggers Haiti Appeal

The blogging community is coming together to make a donation to buy some shelterboxes for the affected people in Haiti. Isn't that wonderful! I love to hear of good human nature winning over and people coming together to do something selfless. Unfortunately I won't be able to make a contribution to this worthy appeal as dh and I have already made a substantial contribution to the aid supplies in Haiti via Compassion, and I would urge you to make a donation, it does not matter where (as long as you know it to be a trustworthy charity!) but just help how you can and if you cannot financially donate then please pray.

Here is the link for the bloggers for Haiti just giving page, this has been running about 24 hours and already there is in excess of £1300 donated. A superb effort and well done to EnglishMum and the other bloggers who created the page and had this great idea.

I am so sad about the situation in Haiti and feel completely powerless, all I can do is pray and make a monetary contribution. Our family sponsors a child in Haiti (through Compassion - hence the instant donation when this happened) and we write to him and pray for him and his family. Carl Henri lives only 4km from the centre of the capital so it is pretty sure that he will have been affected by this disaster in some way. At the top is a couple of pictures of Carl Henri, the one on the left is when we started to sponsor him 4 years ago and the one on the right is the one we last received from him a couple of months ago. Each month we have a standing order and our £21 is very well spent ensuring that Carl Henri can attend a church based community project and develop spiritually, emotionally, physically and emotionally. Why don't you check out Compassion and see if you might like to sponsor a child, it is a fab way for us to teach our own children how privileged and lucky they are. JJ enjoys writing to Carl Henri and drawing him pictures and it is always nice to hear that our birthday or Christmas additional gift has bought him a Pig, football or pair of shoes.