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Poverty
is damaging mothers and their babies
15.07.05
New research
published in Child Poverty Action Group’s Poverty Journal
conducted by Jonathan Bradshaw and Emese Mayhew from the University
of York using the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) demonstrates the
damage done by poverty to mothers and their babies.
Bradshaw and
Mayhew say that one in five of all babies in the Millennium Cohort
Study were living in poverty.
Kate Green OBE
said the research was shocking.
'The MCS shows
that poverty in pregnancy or soon after child birth has highly
damaging consequences for mothers and their babies,' she said.
'Poverty in pregnancy continues to be associated with a much higher
risk of low birth weight, maternal depression and a lower chance
that the mother will try breastfeeding.'
Kate Green said
that benefits levels were inadequate to protect mothers from poverty
in pregnancy and after childbirth.
'Bradshaw
and Mayhew show that the level of benefits for mothers on income
support has not been increased in real terms since the end of
the 1970s,' she said. 'The situation is worse if a single woman
is pregnant when on income support – she will spend her pregnancy
on as little as £44.50 a week, with serious consequences
for her ability to afford a healthy diet essential in pregnancy.'
'Adult rates
of income support need to be increased in line with those for
children in order to improve child health indicators and raise
more children out of poverty,' the authors of the report said.
For further
comment:
Ashley Riley
Press Officer
Tel. 020 7812 5216
Mobile 07811 324339
Email ariley@cpag.org.uk
Notes:
'Mothers,
babies and the risks of poverty' is written by Emese Mayhew
and Jonathan Bradshaw from the University of York for the Summer
2005 Edition of Poverty Journal, which is published by the
Child Poverty Action Group. The research is available online at
The MCS is a new
national longitudinal birth cohort study that was launched in 2000
to mark the new millennium. The first wave of the MCS on which this
analysis is based contains a child population aged nine months, alive
and living in the UK and eligible to receive child benefit.
The Summer
2005 Edition of Poverty also contained articles on
- ‘Making the
public case for tackling poverty and inequality’ by Louise Bamfield,
- ‘The links
between women's and children's poverty’, by Ruth Lister and
- ‘Halving
child poverty: a truly historic third term?’ by Paul Dornan.
All articles
are available online at www.cpag.org.uk, following links to information
and resources.
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