Motherhood is the most important institution in human society – an inevitable and invaluable reality – that must be protected at any cost. Motherhood is a powerful force for social cohesion that influences human behaviour in the present and future generations. Motherhood, however, is menaced by risks and needs succour from family, friends, partners and social networks who can offer emotional and practical sustenance.
Former President David Granger, speaking on the programme – The Public Interest – iterated his opinion that motherhood needs strong support of the state and society at several levels but, above all, women should be assured of access to education. Mothers who are educated are more likely to keep their children in school, ensuring that the benefits of education transcend generations thereby helping to unlock the talent and potential not only their own families but of entire communities and the country.
Motherhood needs the security of sustainable and stable employment. Mothers know that raising children can be expensive and many experience stress in making prudent financial decisions to meet the family’s needs and to balance their competing parenting obligations with income-earning occupations. The burden of poverty falls heavily on women and, unless there is positive change, the cycle of poverty can entrap their children and grandchildren. Some mothers – particularly nurses, teachers, policewomen, soldiers and public servants in fixed employment – are among the employed poor.
Mr. Granger called attention to the situation in some rural coastland and hinterland communities in which motherhood can be challenging and where many women become gardeners, stallholders, traders and vendors out of economic necessity. Mothers, especially those heading single-parent households, are always caregivers and are often breadwinners and homemakers for their families. Mothers most certainly dedicate more time and effort than fathers to unpaid care work and perform more hours of unpaid work in the home yet, must still contend with buying basic food, the cost of which has multiplied over the past fifty months.
Mothers in Guyana are many times more likely than women in developed countries to die in childbirth or from pregnancy-related complications. Data show that maternal deaths have been increasing – from thirteen in 2020, to fifteen in 2021, seventeen in 2022 and fifteen in 2023. Women, today, should be able to rely on health systems to make pregnancy and childbirth safer by skilled attendance at birth and emergency obstetric care. Primary healthcare still needs to be intensified to ensure the best care for women – from health promotion and disease prevention to treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care. Mothers should be supported by family-friendly services such as childcare centres that would reduce their workload.
Mr. Granger lamented that motherhood is imperiled by interpersonal and intimate partner violence. Mothers are victims of the high rate of wife-murders – twenty-two in 2021, twenty-eight in 2022, and forty-seven in 2023 – and deserve to be more fully protected from this crime. Motherhood, nowadays, should be a cause for celebration but, far too frequently, is beset by poverty and threats of violence.
The former president expressed the opinion that mothers should be assisted to attain a high ‘happiness quotient’ – HQ – measured in terms of emotional, financial, intellectual, occupational and spiritual satisfaction. Mothers – of every race, region and religion – face many challenges to bring up their children in safe, healthy and happy homes. Mothers who are happy are likely to raise happy families which can foster happy communities which, in turn, make the country happy. Every Guyanese mother has a right to be happy in this land of her birth.
