Pro-Life Day will be marked on February 3. The Malta Unborn Child Movement will hold a Celebration of Life in the morning in Valletta.

With the cooperation of the Ministry of Justice, Public Dialogue and the Family, the MUCM last October held a conference themed Quality Life For The Unborn Child.

The conference discussed two themes that concern the life of unborn children, namely legislation and the role of the family and society and the protection of parents and the unborn at workplaces.

Studies have established that societal conditions, including the impact of early development, affect the well-being of individuals throughout life, including the early development of unborn children in the womb, the first environment to man.

Insecure emotional attachment and poor stimulation can lead to reduced readiness for school, low educational attainment and problem behaviour.

Low-birth weight infants are more likely to develop coronary heart disease in late middle age.

Yet, social determinants can potentially be altered by social policies and initiatives.

The concern here is, therefore, to address those policies that may have a bearing on the unborn child so that all children born in Malta will have every opportunity to develop into healthy, productive members of society.

On December 4, MUCM representatives met Chris Said, the Minister of Justice, Public Dialogue and the Family and set up a joint committee to implement the recommendations of the conference held in October.

The committee is already committed to include the unborn child in the national children’s policy.

It will also be considering how to conduct a situation analysis about the well-being of the unborn child, aided by statistical data gathered at the local level, to map the reality of the situation in Malta and to set priority areas that need to be addressed.

Conscious of the fact that there are already six laws that promote and safeguard the rights of unborn children and their parents, the committee will also be identifying other legislation that needs to be amended to take into account the well-being of both.

Guidelines by the World Health Organisation and the National Institute of Clinical Excellence say that there is no justification for any region to have Caesarean section rates higher than 10-15 per cent.

The National Obstetric Information System Annual report 2011 indicates that CS rate in Malta stands at 35.2 per cent. The high rate of unnecessary intervention during pregnancy and childbirth in Malta is having a detrimental effect on the mothers, the unborn child and the country.

The MUCM is promoting pregnancy as a social event not an illness. This needs to be addressed from a family perspective.

It has suggested that the ministry and the movement itself spearhead collaboration with all stakeholders to develop a national initiative to counteract binge drinking in general and target young women of child-bearing age in particular.

Binge drinking is a relatively new phenomenon and its effects are yet to be felt. The initiative would go beyond raising awareness of the harm of binge drinking but address the issue holistically.

The Foundation for Social Welfare Services already offers excellent services for women with drug and alcohol problems during pregnancy. However, there seems to be a lacuna in the case of women who consume alcohol and tobacco on a regular basis but are not problem drinkers or smokers. This particular target group will also be addressed.

The well-being, and the health, of the parents and their unborn children from the harmful effects of toxins and chemicals on the places of work will be monitored regularly. The MUCM has already established good contacts for protection purposes with the Health and Safety Authority. The movement is also suggesting that Parenting Education, which is already in place and is run by Sedqa, will include the unborn child and involve the emotional well-being of the unborn child. This has been highlighted by Natalie Kenely, chairwoman of the National Commission for the Family, in her keynote speech during the unborn child conference. It is hoped that family-parenting education will be further strengthened at Parent Craft of Mater Dei Hospital.

For the same purpose, the MUCM will increase its efforts so that vulnerable groups will be better reached through Aġenzija Aċċess.

The MUCM is bringing all this to the attention of the three political parties so that they will continue to do their utmost for the well-being of the 20,000 children who will be born in the next five years of the new government.

The movement hopes, and is confident, that notwithstanding the fact that political parties are not shouting about the interests of unborn children in their electoral campaign so far, the good work for the well-being of unborn children that started lately between the Ministry of Justice, Public Dialogue and the Family and the Malta Unborn Child Movement will continue with earnest irrespective of which party is elected to government in the March 9 general election.

Tony Mifsud is coordinator of the Malta Unborn Child Movement.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.