Now it may have escaped your attention, but on Saturday 2nd May a woman gave birth to a baby. Actually, a number of women gave birth to children on Saturday 2nd May. UNICEF estimates that an average of 353,000 babies are born each day around the world. The crude birth rate is 18.9 births per 1,000 population or 255 births globally per minute or 4.3 births every second (as of Dec. 2013 estimate)
Source: http://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/How-Many-Babies-Are-Born-Each-Day
But most of the world wasn’t looking at the 352,999 other babies. The world looked at one baby born in London to a wealthy young couple called William and Kate Windsor. As yet the baby hasn’t been named, though it is unlikely she’ll be called Chardonnay or Shania.
In case you missed the news, the baby girl is now 4th in line to the British throne.
I’m no monarchist, so I didn’t get all the hoopla surrounding the birth. That said, I am pleased for her parents, as I would be for any new parents. And I ask for God’s blessing on them and their little girl. But I can’t say it means much more to me than that.
Someone said to me yesterday that I should be more excited because history was made. Well wasn’t history made with the birth of the other 352,999 babies? I would hope that for most of their parents, the birth was an historic moment too. And who knows, maybe one of the 352,999 wil become as famous as the Royal baby?
One of the 352,999 was born in a field hospital run by the Israeli army in Nepal. According to a report from the Associated Press (filed in the Washington Post on line) the baby girl was born late on Friday evening in Nepal (Saturday UK). The report says how:
On Friday they went instead to a field hospital where the baby was born.
The midwife, Dganit Gery, said she hoped the birth would show all Nepalese women that there is hope for the future.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/baby-born-in-field-hospital-after-nepal-earthquake/2015/05/01/42d0e676-f01d-11e4-8050-839e9234b303_story.html
Isn’t this historic too?
(I pray for the well-being of this child and her parents as well.)
What caught me out yesterday was the amount of coverage given to the birth of the Royal baby in all newspapers and media. Even the normally restrained (when it comes to things Royal) Independent kept Tweeting the story all day. That said, The Independent brought some balance to play in a story contrasting the life expectancy of the Royal baby with that of other females in this country. The princess could well live 11 years longer than her peers the story says. (She could live until she’s 94 the story estimates.) The royal baby’s life expectancy is higher for a number of reasons including access to superior healthcare, wealth and security.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/royal-baby-girl-expected-to-live-11-years-longer-than-peers-10220602.html
Meanwhile, what of the baby girl born in Nepal? According to the latest WHO data published in April 2011 life expectancy in Nepal is: Male 67.3, female 69.1 and total life expectancy is 68.2 which gives Nepal a World Life Expectancy ranking of 122.
http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/nepal-life-expectancy
(At the time of the birth of the Royal baby, I was shaking a tin in Chippenham High Street with colleagues from Rotary, to raise funds to help the victims of the earthquake in Nepal.)
Some of you will be familiar with the story of a baby born over 2,000 years ago to peasant parents in as country today we call Israel. At birth the boy would have had a life expectancy of 20 – 30 years on average. Though if a child lived to 10, then life expectancy would increase to 45 – 47 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy
We’re not sure what age he was when he died (he was executed if you don’t know the story) though he was probably in his early 30s.
He would have prayed for and blessed both of the girls I’ve mentioned I’m sure. (He always had a fondness for children and treated them well – which was different to the values of his society at the time.) But he would have had something to say I feel about the differences between their lifestyles and prospects when in his eyes all children are loved equally. In fact he wold have said something about the differences between all babies born in affluent countries and the poorest countries.
The baby born 2,000 years ago was a King but a King of a very different Kingdom to any we know.
