BECOMING A PARENT – ANOTHER WAY TO SEE AND PREPARE FOR THE GIFT OF LIFE
When the numbers scream...
On June 8, 2015, the 2013 Global Burden of Disease Study, with its staggering figures, made headlines in most newspapers around the world.
Some newspapers reported on the front page that "95% of humans suffer from some disease," while other newspapers headlined that "only 5% of people in the world have no disease or disability."
Yes, these numbers are staggering, but the one that overwhelmed me the most was this one:
* 64% of children under five (5) years old in developed countries have a health problem!
Let us be aware that this figure does not speak of children in poor and deprived countries, and it does not include them. This figure, as shrill as an alarm siren, speaks to us of children in our well-off countries where people do not die of hunger or cold; where there is an abundance of clean water; where hygiene measures have seriously reduced infectious diseases; where knowledge, learning, science, are within the reach of all those who are willing to make the effort to access them.
Of course, sick children are likely to become sick adolescents, and then sick young adults, and it is not difficult to accept this phenomenal figure, stated in the journal Science et Vie in these words: "In 2013, 95.7% of humans carried the burden of an acute or chronic illness, or of an injury, lesion or physical damage"; "only 4.3% of human beings do not suffer from any kind of damage, whether biological, physiological, physical or mental2."
Which group do we want to place our children in?
And let's be blunt: our children do not suffer mainly from communicable diseases – diarrheal diseases, parasites, malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis A. They suffer from non-communicable diseases, that is, those diseases linked to our lifestyle marked by the abundance of processed products offered by the food industry, a sedentary lifestyle, and intense exposure to the media – there is something for everyone – and their materialistic philosophies . This is how obesity, diabetes, childhood depression, anxiety, violence, autism, hyperactivity, allergies – among others – have become the sad lot of 64% of children under five in the West.
Reality is hard to take, and as the poet TS Eliot so aptly put it: "Humanity can only bear a small amount of reality." It prefers to close its eyes, numb its conscience, and pretend that nothing is wrong.
But when you want to become a parent, and you are ready to live a new paradigm, you know the joy of projecting healthy beings into the world who will turn the statistics upside down...
Men and women of childbearing age have a responsibility to take this privilege seriously and honestly. It's time to address the ecology of life. For a man, fathering a healthy, strong child powerfully enhances his virility. For a woman, giving birth to a beautiful baby infinitely enriches her femininity.
I ardently desire that men and women learn to do everything possible to ensure that, from conception to birth and beyond, the child has a protected environment that is favorable to its full growth! Protecting life is investing in the future.
Oh! Let us silence the numbers, one child at a time. And ease some of the world's suffering. LET US ACT! Without delay.
1. Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 Collaborators. Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 301 acute and chronic diseases and injuries in 188 countries, 1990–2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013, The Lancet, 2015 DOI: 10.1 01 6 /S0140-6736(15)60692-4 2. www.science-et-vie.com/2015/o6/
3. Starenkyj D., BECOMING A PARENT – Living a new paradigm, Orion, 2014.
4. Starenkyj D., BECOMING A PARENT, “The Ecology of Life”, pp. 45-81, Orion, 2014.
Photo credit: Marï photography
Leave a comment