Earlier this month I became a mother for the first time, welcoming baby Elsie into the world on 14th March. Between the feeding, nappy changes and sleepless nights, I have watched in wonder at this tiny new human life, whose survival and future very much depends on me, my husband and our wider support network.

You cannot choose where you are born, nor the circumstances in which you are born into. Elsie is lucky to have been born into a nurturing and loving home, in a country where her basic needs - water, food, health care, education, shelter - are met, and where she is, as much as is possible, safe and secure.

I too have been lucky in my journey into motherhood, accessing high quality and specialist medical care and support throughout my pregnancy, at delivery and now, postnatally. As a result, I have remained healthy and well, never fearing for mine or Elsie’s life.

Had Elsie and I embarked on this journey as a Sierra Leonean woman and child our prospects might have looked very different:

• I may have been one of the 1,360 women who die per 100,000 live births in Sierra Leone due to pregnancy and childbirth related causes (compared to 8.9 in the UK)

• Elsie may have been one of the 111 per 1,000 children who die before their fifth birthday due to preventable causes such as diarrhoea (compared to 3.8 in the UK).

*statistics courtesy of UNICEF and https://vizhub.healthdata.org/sdg/

For so many of the girls and young women we work with, pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood is sadly not the joyous and anticipated event that it is for the majority of women in the UK. Instead, it is a time of fear, risk and uncertainty, with the girls often unable to access the care and support that they need to remain safe and healthy. Many too face the prospect of losing their child young - since launching the programme in August 2018, two of the 25 young mothers children have passed away due to fever and malaria. Sadly this is an all too common occurrence in a country with one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world.

Motherhood is universal, with women carrying, delivering and raising children in every corner of the world. Yet our experiences are shaped by factors often out-with our control - the wealth or otherwise of the nation in which we are a citizen, available health facilities within our communities, the income of our household, the education levels of our family. Despite this, as mother’s we all share the same basic hopes and dreams for our children - for them to grow up healthy and happy.

This Mother’s Day I commend the many millions of women raising children in challenging circumstances across the world. Girls like Katumu, who at just 16 years old is caring for her child alone, without the support of a partner or family, yet who is still managing to attend school thanks to the support of the AdAmi Project. These girls are some of the most resilient mothers you will ever meet, remaining determined against all odds to build a brighter future for themselves and their children.

Happy Mother’s Day all

Kirsty x