– A future for our children and theirs: the scandal of low birthweight:

The trustees now wish to develop the principles of the Foundation to be applied to poverty and adverse pregnancy outcomes for both the mother and the child. One of our trustees Sir Kenneth Stuart a previous medical advisor to the Commonwealth has recently published 3 seminal papers to draw attention to poverty.

Breaking the cycle of deprivation requires prioritising maternal health and nutrition even before conception, preventing low birth weight and prematurity. It is a scandal that despite the advances in science and medicine, low birthweight and prematurity in the UK is at the same prevalence if not higher than in 1950. Mental ill health has been increasing. IQ has been falling.

Professor Michael Crawford another trustee published a statement on the crisis in nutrition and mental health . The summary is that poor learning ability, cognition together with behavioural pathology undermines the ability of an individual to achieve. On a population basis it cements poverty.

Josette Sheeran when CEO of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said in her report to the Board in 2010 “We know now that if children under two do not receive sufficient nutrition they will be sentenced to a lifetime of mental and physical limitations”.

This is the first time the significance of the brain has been recognised at this level of political management and is truly welcomed. Whilst she was correct, the most important consideration is the nutrition and health of the mother as the brain is formed before birth.

– Plan of Action:

To enhance public health and especially that of young women, their mental health, and the health and intelligence of the children.
Sir Kenneth Stuart called for World Charter for Mothers.

During a conference in 1993 at the Royal Society of Medicine, London UK, to celebrate the launch of the Foundation, Dr Mark Belsey then Director of Maternal and Child Health at WHO, Geneva, said: “Everywhere the interest of the child are rightly served by, UNICEF, Save the Children Fund, the ubiquitous Institutes of Child Health and the many NGOs.

He paused and then said “There is no voice for the mother”

There are now several organisations supporting maternal health and the mother but still not remotely on the scale of the child. Yet attending to much of the adverse conditions of child physical and mental-ill health, important and crucial as it is, it is still closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. We need a World Carter for Mothers is not United Nations Organisation for Maternal Health (UNMH). MACEND

We first needed to know the reason for developmental disorders. The results of our work and a successful double blind clinical trial leaves little doubt about the pivotal importance of maternal nutrition before and around the time of conception. Nature does not leave important actions to the last minute. By contrast she prepares in advance.

With the new knowledge gained in nutrition and on the specific lipid requirements for the brain, the foundation is poised to make a major breakthrough in public health and specifically in the prevention of adverse pregnancy outcomes which include the costly neurodevelopmental disorders and their effects on maternal wellbeing and health.

** For more details including the envisaged activities, please download the PDF document "Aims of the Mother & Child Foundation". [DOWNLOAD]