Every minute of every day, about 267 babies come into the world. On Friday, Angelina Jolie shared with BBC Radio 4′s Women’s Hour that she knows from experience it's not always a joyful experience.
"I went to a hospital in Namibia, where I was having my daughter, and I was in breech," the 41-year-old mom-of-six said of giving birth to daughter Shiloh in 2006. "I needed a C-section, and I knew I was in breech because I had had the money to have an ultrasound. But I found even the local hospital with many, many people, many women — and this was a good hospital — did not have an ultrasound machine."
Around 800 women around the world die of complications from childbirth every day. Ahead of World Refugee Day on June 20, Jolie — who joined Radio 4 as a guest editor to talk about health in refugee camps — shared the harsh reality of life as a pregnant woman without resources.
“So the amount of women that didn’t know they were in breech, the amount of babies and complications when they got into labor, with one simple machine...” she added. “But I know there are many extraordinary people who are working on this and women’s health around the world, and many groups dedicated solely to that, and their work is so needed and these solutions can come.”
Angelina for president, anyone?
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