The Risky Business of Making Babies

There’s no shortage of work in the Democratic Republic of Congo for pediatricians. The median age of the country’s 65 million population is around 16, and the population growth rate is 3.22% (population growth in Japan, Italy, Germany and Russia is negative; population growth in Liberia is 4.5%, Ireland 1.77%, India 1.46% and the United States 0.97%).

The DRC’s myriad health problems, however, mean life is especially tough (and risky) for the country’s children. While the infant mortality rate in the United States is 6.9 deaths per 1,000 live births (and the U.S. ranks an unimpressive 29th in infant mortality statistics; Singapore ranks first at 2.0; Hong Kong next at 2.5 and Japan third at 2.8), in the DRC 88.62 children of every 1,000 live births die before reaching their first birthdays.

In addition, about 510 women die per 100,000 births, and since the average Congolese woman gives birth to more than six children, baby making is risky business.

The children, if they survive their first year, can look forward to the very good possibility that at some point in the near future they’ll need medical attention for cholera, malaria, meningitis, tuberculosis or that old Congolese standby, malnutrition.

I shot these photos in the MSF hospital in Bunia, in Ituri province, accompanying Dr. Dede Sapo Mudinga on his rounds. Bunia is quiet now, but has seen more than its share of killing during the past 10 years, and is now the base of operations for a significant United Nations peacekeeping force.