A 2009 World Health Organisation report on Malta, entitled ‘Environment and health performance review’, stated that children and adolescents are recognised as a priority in environment and health and occupational health.
Lately, it was reported (Times of Malta, December 20) that Malta is the first member state in the European Union to draft a national report on environmental health inequalities. Launched last December 19 by Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia the report identified vulnerable population groups at risk of being affected by inequalities related to housing, the environment and injuries.
Karen Vincenti, from the environmental health policy coordination unit, explained that exposure to second-hand smoke at home is a health risk for almost a quarter of Maltese people.
According to the report, exposure is most frequent among youths, those with secondary education and the unemployed and disabled people. Some 25 per cent of employees also reported being exposed to tobacco smoke at the workplace.
There is scientific evidence that the misuse of alcohol, drugs and tobacco by parents before and during pregnancy and chemical and toxic emissions in the air, which is inhaled by mothers, fathers and 200 million unborn children worldwide every year, including 4,000 in Malta and Gozo, is causing a lot of physical and mental injuries to many millions of people before and after birth, everywhere. The exposure of parents and their unborn children to chemical and toxic substances at places of work is most probably leaving the same negative effects.
All this is likely to continue happening if a local and worldwide campaign, which declares that the health of unborn children is also suffering as a result of many environmental hazards, does not take place. This is needed to transform pre-polluted wombs into ones that no longer have chemical and toxic substances pumped into them for whatever reason, from wherever, and in which human lives can thrive and develop properly, from conception until born and even after.
The International Society of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Medicine, which is devoted to the initial phase of human development, considers the earliest stage of life as the first ecological position of the human being and the womb as its first ecological environment. Pregnancy is perceived to be a period of active and continuous dialogue between the prenatal child, the mother and her psycho-social environment.
From a holistic view, human life is recognised as an indivisible entity and continuum of all human functions, both physical and psychological, in which no division between ‘body’ and ‘mind’ can be made.
When commenting on antenatal stress and the child foetal stress syndrome in their discrimination seminar ‘Protecting the future’ in November 2005, Russell Jones & Walker (Solicitors) concluded that scientific evidence shows that foetal heart rates increase when mothers are asked to undertake unpleasant tasks, reaching high anxiety levels than normal.
Great benefits can be gained during pregnancy for mothers and babies by reduced stress levels both at home and at work
In-utero environments can be affected by work and can change the future development of the foetus and have permanent effects on the child after birth.
In the US, research shows that diseases that were once thought to arise near the time of their manifestation in adult life are now known to have roots in early post-natal life.
Mothers in the top 15 per cent stress- or anxiety-affected groups during pregnancy have double the risk of children with behavioural problems (attention deficit and hyperactivity). They are also prone to emotional problems including anxiety and depression.
Maternal stress and anxiety during pregnancy has a broad spectrum of adverse effects on the developing foetus, from impaired cognitive and language development to increased behavioural and emotional problems. Great benefits can be gained during pregnancy for mothers and babies by reduced stress levels both at home and at work.
The anxiety levels of parents of unborn children should be measured regularly at community and work levels and when high scores are recorded action by the competent health and other authorities should lead to active intervention related to working conditions and to lifestyles.
A step in the right direction in the EU has been made lately when, towards the end of 2013, the basis for the foundation of the European federation ‘One of Us’ to defend life from conception in the EU was laid.
After collecting nearly two million signatures in support of the ‘One of Us’ petition to the European Commission, the coordinators of the initiative in the 28 European countries gathered in Krakow, Poland and agreed to set up a European federation to defend life before the EU institutions.
‘One of us’ was the first European Citizens’ Initiative to raise a concrete proposal for legislative reform to the European institutions. The signatures were collected in the 28 EU members with a significant number of them in 20 of the states, representing 77 per cent of the European population.
Encouraged by this success, the coordinators of the initiative met also to celebrate the first European ‘One of Us’ conference. As part of this event, they agreed to instruct the executive committee of the initiative to work for the development of a proposed charter to serve as a starting point for the launching of a European federation that can embrace all the organisations working in the defence, and development, of human life from conception in the EU. This initiative brings together almost all of the pro-life and pro-family entities in Europe.
During 2013, the Malta Unborn Child Movement met high officials from the ministries responsible for justice, public dialogue and the family in the previous Administration. It also met high officials also from the ministries responsible for the family, social solidarity and health under the present Administration.
There are very good prospects that concrete action will be taken soon for the well-being of unborn children also in Malta.
Tony Mifsud is coordinator of the Malta Unborn Child Movement.