"The death of one child, when that death could have been avoided, is a rebuke to all humanity." Javier Perez de Cuellar, UN Secretary General 1986

• More children die because they are improperly weaned than because of famine.

• More children die because their parents do not know how to manage diarrhoea than because of epidemics.

• More children die because their mothers have no wells, hoes or purchasing power than because of war.

And when children are stunted and retarded from disease and malnutrition, when overburdened parents cannot generate wealth for education and development ... these stresses perpetuate drought, disease and famine. Worldwatch Paper 64

Bottle fed babies are three times as likely to get diarrhea and twice as likely to catch respiratory infections (the two main causes of infant death) as breast fed babies. New Internationalist

In very poor countries, children may be ill for 30% to 50% of their young lives. State of the World's Children 1986

A study of 25 countries showed that giving all mothers 7 or more years of education lowered infant and child mortality by an average of 41%. New Internationalist

A relatively small amount of extra food each day, for at-risk pregnant women, has been shown to reduce the incidence of low-birthweight which is universally, and in all population groups, the single most important determinant of the chances of the newborn to survive and to experience healthy growth and development. State of the World's Children 1986
Looking after Mothers If mothers are this important to the welfare of children, it should be obvious that their physical and mental well-being should be safeguarded. But the reality is different. Fatigue is the commonest chronic health problem for women - not surprisingly. In the poor world, women produce at least 50% of the food, as well as being responsible for all the domestic tasks. Childbearing adds a third workload; by the age of 30, a women has often spent 80% of her adult life pregnant or breastfeeding. Hard work, childbearing and undernourishment lead to anemia. In poor countries, half of all women, and two thirds of pregnant women, are anemic. The value of women's unpaid labour in industrialised countries is estimated as 25 - 40% of GNP. In the world as a whole, it is estimated as one -third of the world's economic product.

Discriminate Death

Discrimination by wealth begins even before birth. Poor, undernourished mothers are more likely to give birth to undernourished babies - and small, weak babies are more susceptible to illness and death. Low birthweight babies are 4 - 6 times more susceptible to physical and mental handicap, and 8 - 10 times more likely to die in the first year of life.

More than 23 million babies a year are born weighing less than 2,500 grammes (approx. 5.5 pounds); 90% of these are born in the developing world... where one child in four is also seriously undernourished. But even in the richest countries babies are not safe from the effects of poverty. If a baby is born into a family kept poor by race or class discrimination, the baby's chances of survival shrink.

Sex discrimination kills, too. If a baby is not just poor and black, but a girl, her chances of survival dwindle further. Girl babies are biologically stronger than boys, so at birth and earliest infancy, girls' death rates are often lower than boys'.

But then discrimination in favour of boys takes over, and the girls' death rate begins to surpass the boys'.