2006年VOA标准英语-Africa Population Experts Seek to Make Motherho

By Efam Dovi
Accra
06 November 2006

Africa population experts meeting in Ghana say it is unacceptable that large numbers of women on the continent continue to die from complications of pregnancy¹ and child birth, in an era of unprecedented² wealth and technology. Efam Dovi filed this report from the African Population Commission's West Africa regional conference in the Ghanaian capital, Accra.

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Advisor3 on Population and Health, addressing delegates in Accra, Ghana, Monday, Nov. 06, 2006" src="/upimg/allimg/070508/0955260.jpg" width="210" border="0" /> Professor F.T. Sai, Ghana's Presidential Advisor on Population and Health, addressing delegates in Accra, Ghana, Monday, Nov. 06, 2006

Pregnancy and childbirth are life-changing events expected to bring joy to families. But for many women in sub-Saharan Africa, these events have become associated with death and misery⁴.

World Health Organization and United Nations studies, indicate that one out of 16 women living in sub-Saharan Africa will die from pregnancy related causes, compared to developed countries where the figure is one out of 28,00.

About 200 delegates meeting in Ghana will be discussing and sharing experiences on the problem during the next three days.

Ghana National Population Council Cahir Virginia Ofosu-Ammah says it is important to make all components⁵ of reproductive-health services easily accessible.

She said, "So this meeting is suppose to look at what is happening in countries in West Africa, find out exactly what they are doing right, what they are doing wrong, so that we do not repeat the mistakes, and then we hope that through the exchange of experiences we will really strengthen what we are doing and try to scale up the programs on safe motherhood."

Jacques Van Zuydam represents the African Population Commission, currently chaired by South Africa. He stressed the need to empower women to take control over decisions that affect their bodies.

"The countries that have made progress in the provision of reproductive health services as part of a comprehensive primary healthcare are the ones that have achieved lower maternal⁶, infant and child mortality rates and lower fertility rates," he said.

U.N.F.P.A. Ghana's representative, Makane Kane, called for action in addressing the problem.

He said, "It is no longer the time for projects or pilots as we have enough evidence of what works and at what cost. The majority of countries have already successful but limited projects to reduce maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity⁷, it is time to go to scale up, to scale to ensure universal access to maternal health services in as many countries as possible."

Experts say 80 percent of maternal deaths are due to direct causes such as blood loss, unsafe abortion⁸, obstructed⁹ labor¹⁰ and pregnancy induced hypertension.

Professor F.T. Sai, Ghana's presidential advisor on population and health, asks delegates to advocate for laws that protect women from unsafe abortion.

"My main concern is that if this [unsafe abortion] is killing¹¹ so many women and the technologies are available why should we allow ideologies¹² or religion or whatever, to make them die, which religion says my people should die?"

Nearly 50 percent of all maternal deaths in sub-Saharan Africa are blamed on unsafe abortion.

1 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

2 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

3 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

4 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

5 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。

6 maternal   

adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的

参考例句：

• He is my maternal uncle.他是我舅舅。
• The sight of the hopeless little boy aroused her maternal instincts.那个绝望的小男孩的模样唤起了她的母性。

7 morbidity   

n.病态；不健全；发病；发病率

参考例句：

• MC's also significantly reduce the morbidity and mortality induced by honeybee venom. 肥大细胞同样也能显著降低蜜蜂毒液诱发疾病的发病率和死亡率。 来自互联网
• The result shows that incidence of myopia morbidity is 44.84%. 结果表明：近视眼的发病率为44.84%。 来自互联网

8 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

9 obstructed   

阻塞( obstruct的过去式和过去分词 )； 堵塞； 阻碍； 阻止

参考例句：

• Tall trees obstructed his view of the road. 有大树挡着，他看不到道路。
• The Irish and Bristol Channels were closed or grievously obstructed. 爱尔兰海峡和布里斯托尔海峡或遭受封锁，或受到了严重阻碍。

10 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

11 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

12 ideologies   

n.思想（体系）( ideology的名词复数 )；思想意识；意识形态；观念形态

参考例句：

• There is no fundamental diversity between the two ideologies. 这两种思想意识之间并没有根本的分歧。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Radical ideologies require to contrast to their own goodness the wickedness of some other system. 凡是过激的意识形态，都需要有另外一个丑恶的制度作对比，才能衬托出自己的善良。 来自辞典例句