Why so many children??

Children looking for food on the garbage dumps

I have been pondering how to comment on this question. You may have wondered, or may still be wondering why do these mothers in these impoverished countries continue to give birth to so many children, when in fact they can't raise them to adulthood, or in fact raise them, but then leave them to fend for themselves by foraging from garbage dumps, begging or living off the streets. I am no expert in this whole topic, but one thing I have learned is that we as United States, Americans can not pass judgment on people from other countries based on the lives that we live and the opportunities that we have. Our idea of poor is hugely rich to most people around the world.

It just is not the same, and until you visit some of these countries, and spend time in the poorer areas, you will never fully understand it.

Even if you did, I still don't think we can fully understand what it would be like to hope for one meal each day, hope to feed our children and skip ourselves for their sakes, not knowing where we will sleep for the night, or where the next "buck" will come from. So you may be thinking, so what is the difference between them and our homeless people. I'm not sure there is much except for the one difference I think there may be is that in America, there is always a chance for something better, but in other countries since most of the country lives poor, there is very little opportunity to break out of the cycle of poverty.

So I am attaching snip-its from two websites that dealt with some of the reasons why so many children are born into these impoverished situations. From what I have read and heard from many different sources, you can exchange the name of the countries and replace it with India, Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras, Ethiopia and so on, because the reasons tend to be the same:

Lack of birth control:Without birth control, the growing populations of poor countries are only limited by starvation, disease, and war. Most women in poor countries want access to birth control, but because of poverty and the interference of religious organizations, they cannot gain access to it. Faced with the demand for sex from their husbands, and/or raped by neighborhood men >(I added) they continue to give birth, only to watch helplessly as their babies starve. The surviving children grow up without access to education and with little or no hope of employment.
While most people in industrialized nations can easily afford the cost of birth control, it remains beyond the reach of those who need it most. Only when birth control is provided for free to women in developing nations will the cycle of poverty, starvation, disease, and war be broken. Free birth control would allow every couple to choose how many children they want to have. The global cost of providing free birth control would be small compared to the long term financial, environmental, and human costs if nothing is done.
www.evolutionary-metaphysics.net/sexual_morality.html

It is well documented that since the people of Guatemala worship Christ through the Catholic religion, they don't have access to birth control because it is frowned upon by the Catholic religion. I am not disrespecting the Catholic faith, just stating the facts of one of the reasons for high number of births.

Low Societal position of women and son preference:
Apart from its vertiginous cliffs, poor roads and extreme weather, one of the most significant reasons behind the persistently high death rates is gender discrimination. In Afghanistan, men are considered superior to women, and sons are generally more prized than girls. In practical terms, this ‘son preference’ translates into high rates of female illiteracy, malnutrition and early marriage. Indeed, women are seen as little more than commodities who are often bought, sold or are given away to rival families or clans as a means of resolving conflicts. The strong conservative patriarchy of Afghanistan is deeply rooted in the history and culture and is justified through local interpretation of Islamic teachings. Because families are so poor, parents are more likely to pool scarce resources to send their boys to school and to ensure that they remain healthy. Girl children invariably do without. Indeed, so entrenched is the bias against girls and women, that Afghanistan is the one of only two countries where male life expectancy exceeds that of females.
One of the more pernicious aspects discrimination, however, lies in the widespread practice of child marriage. According to Shinwari, more than 40 per cent of Badakshani women are married before the age of 15 and often long before their immature bodies can cope with both the demands of sex and the rigours of childbirth. In Afghanistan overall, 40 per cent of girls are married before they reach the age of 18. In more outlying areas, poverty, lack of awareness and the need to “protect” young girls from premarital pregnancy, encourages many parents to marry their daughters off even younger—in some cases when they are no more than seven–years old. Many of the women and girls that eventually make it into Dr Shinwari’s clinic have been stunted by years of semi-starvation. This, coupled with poor infrastructure and the pressure to begin child bearing early, can be recipe for disaster.
Although maternal haemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal death in Afghanistan, in Badakhshan prolonged and obstructed labour accounts for most (30 per cent) maternal deaths. In the absence of emergency obstetric care, this can also lead to disabling and stigmatizing conditions such as obstetric fistula. Girls under the age of 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their twenties.
www.unfpa.org/swp/2005/presskit/docs/afghanistan.doc

I have seen this to be the situation in MANY countries..too many to name them all.

So some women who have the opportunity to find a better life for their child(ren) come to the difficult, heart wrenching decision, to allow another family to raise their child(ren) in hopes that there will be more opportunities for them. That is an incredible love..so big that I don't even know if there are enough words to describe the depth of it.

Yes, I admit I have selfishly benefited from their decisions because I am able to be a mother. I would be remiss if I didn't state that. I am grateful to them, for me, and the life and purpose that their children will be able to fulfill. I feel my life was saved the day my daughter entered it, and I am sure it will be doubly enriched when Gabryel comes home.

Is that the end, no I also hope to give back to these two countries in ways that are not totally clear to me yet, A way that I along with many others will be able to help make a difference in not only our children's lives but also in the lives of the people from their birth country.