Annotated Source- Mother's Education and Childhood Mortality

This article is absolutely fascinating. It evaluates the mother's knowledge and the affect it has on a child's health. These two factors have never been compared before in Ghana. The conclusion is that mother's education inversely affects child survival. About 40% of women with no formal education immunized their children whereas more than 85% of women with secondary education or higher immunized their children. The educated and higher socio-economic women used facilities more than the uneducated and lower socio-economic classes. Education affects income, and income is one of the greatest obstacles in healthcare.

The author did research on a topic very closely related to mine. It seems obvious to me that increased maternal education would decrease childhood morbidity. In Ghana most women do not receive a formal education and a large percentage of them are illiterate. These barriers decrease their access to health care information and resources. Because of the lack of health care information in certain parts the tendency to utilize traditional medicine and self medications and that leads to increased childhood mortality.

I can see that trend even here in America. Families living in poverty don't go to the doctor when needed because of income reasons and without some formal education they aren't sure where to turn to. Education is very powerful and can help out millions of people and their posterity. However, In Africa school sometimes isn't an option. The girl is needed on the family farm to help support them. I believe schooling is free in Africa but it's not usually the cost. The daughter is needed to work and support the family or watch after the younger kids. It is a very sad cycle that will hopefully be broken. Oprah, a very inspirational person, has made efforts to make a school for girls to educate them and give Africa their future leaders. I watched an interview about the graduating class of 2011 and they were all so touched by Oprah's generosity and really saw the effect education had on their lives. The girls were all very inspired to go out and change the rest of Africa. If this continues, hopefully Africa will have more women educated and they can pass on their knowledge to their posterity.

This article is very valuable information to me. I am studying the mother's role in choosing health care for her children but I should maybe be focusing more on what the mother knows about the different health care plans and why she chooses them. As I review different articles my project is always changing and this is definitely an article worth spending a lot of time over.



The article can be read here.