The worst place to be a mother（在线收听）

Jen:             Hello and welcome to another edition of 6 minute English. My name is Jennifer. 

Neil:            And I'm Neil. 

Jen:             And today we are going to talk about research that looks at conditions for 

                 mothers in different countries. 

Neil:             I've heard that in Brazil they say that "to be a mother is to suffer in paradise" 

                 because motherhood is rewarding due to the love between child and mother 

                 but it's not an easy job. 

Jen:             Well, according to a report by the charity Save the Children, in some countries 

                 motherhood seems to be more challenging than in others. They compared 

                 conditions for mothers in 165 countries. 

Neil:             And what sort of factors did they take into account when ranking these 

                 countries, Jen? 

Jen:             Health, education, social status and nutrition. These were the factors 

                 researchers investigated when compiling this list. 

Neil:             But before we talk about Save the Children's conclusions, let's start with a 

                 question for our listeners about mothers and for me too. 

Jen:             Well Neil, it's about the oldest woman to give birth. It's a Spanish woman and 

                 it happened in 2006. How old was she? 

                 a)      58 years old 

                 b)      66 years old      or 

                 c)      72 years old      ? 

Neil:            72?! Now you're pushing it, I think. It has to be… a) 58. That sounds almost 

                 reasonable considering advancements in medicine… 

Jen:              We'll hear the answer at the end of the programme. Now, back to our story 

                 about mothers. A huge problem that's highlighted in the report is nutrition or 

                 malnutrition. 

Neil:            Women need to eat properly to give birth to healthy children. 

Jen:              Let's listen to the first part of the report by the BBC's Mike Wooldridge to hear 

                 about the problem of malnutrition. See if you can hear which word is used to 

                 mean 'to stop someone from growing'. 

Neil:            So the reporter says that malnutrition produces stunting, which means that 

                 people don't grow properly. Here the reporter says malnutrition undermines 

                 physical and mental growth. 

Jen:              That's right; because mothers are stunted in childhood they have children 

                 who are underweight and vulnerable. And it creates what the reporter calls a 

                 vicious cycle. 

Neil:            A vicious cycle means that the problem keeps repeating itself… mothers 

                 suffer from malnutrition, so their children suffer from malnutrition … then 

                 these children grow up and have children who are also vulnerable … and it 

                 goes on and on. 

Jen:             And many of the countries at the bottom of the Save the Children's list – the 

                 worst places to live for mothers – a facing a food crisis. 

Neil:            So which country faces lack of foodstuff and, according to the Save the 

                 Children report, was the worst for mothers, Jen? 

Jen:             The next part of the report tells us which country is at the bottom of the index 

                 and also which one has moved up one position. See if you can hear what has 

                 happened to it. 

Neil:            We hear that Niger is at the epicentre of the food emergency, it means that 

                 it is in the centre, the main position, of an area where lack of food is dramatic. 

Jen:             Well, the report also says that Afghanistan was the last one in the list for two 

                 years but is no longer the worst place to be a mother. Because they've 

                 invested more into frontline health workers. 

Neil:            These are medical workers like doctors and dentists. They made conditions for 

                 mothers a little bit better. 

Jen:             Sometimes simple measures can improve the lives of mothers and their 

                 children. One example is given in the next section of the report. Let's hear it. 

Jen:             A simple way of saving children is by helping more mothers to provide milk 

                 from their breast to their babies. Breast milk is known to be very nutritious for 

                 children. Breastfeeding can save the lives of a million children a year. 

Neil:            And the report also says that Norway is the best place to be a mother. Very 

                 different realities there. Well Jen, we are running out of time and I'd like to 

                 have the result of the quiz please. 

Jen:             It was about the oldest woman to give birth. It's a Spanish woman and it 

                 happened in 2006. How old was she? 

                 a)  58 years old 

                 b)  66 years old     or 

                 c)  72 years old      ? 

Neil:            I said it was a) 58. 

Jen:             And you were actually wrong! It's b) 66 years old and the oldest mother, 

                 according to the Guinness Book of Record is Maria del Carmen Bousada Lara, 

                 who gave birth by caesarean section to twin boys, aged 66 years 358 days at 

                 the Sant Pau hospital, Barcelona, Spain. That was on the 29th of December 

                 2006. And Maria received IVF treatment in America. 

Neil:            Well, you get some right and you get some wrong! And I got that wrong so … 

                 before we finish, let's hear the words from today's programme one more time. 

                  to undermine 

                 to stunt 

                 a vicious cycle 

                  a food crisis 

                  to be at the epicentre of something 

                  a frontline health worker 

                  to breastfeed 

Jen:             That's all from us for this week. Goodbye! 

Neil:             Goodbye!