MAYNARD

PAWTUCKET — As a volunteer translator on a medical trip to Guiamaca, Honduras, last summer, Michaela Maynard learned a valuable lesson: not all pregnancies are equal.

In places where proper medical treatment is distant and costly, women have little choice but to give birth at home, in sometimes poor, unsanitary conditions. Fishing wire can be used to cut the umbilical cord.

She was “shocked and outraged,” Maynard said, but also suddenly aware that “economic, political, and cultural barriers” beyond the control of the ordinary citizens of Guiamaca were at work.

Now the 21-year-old Pawtucket native is heading to Malawi next month on a trip sponsored by Americans for UNFPA (the United Nations Population Fund) to expand her understanding of the issues facing women around the world, particularly in the area of reproductive health.

“I want to make people aware of the difficulties that other people face in other countries,” Maynard said. “The fact of the matter is that people in third-world countries are not lazy, they are educated, but they can’t make changes in their lives if they don’t have what they need.”

Maynard, a 2007 graduate of the University of Rhode Island, was the winner of the nonprofit group’s first essay contest about the health and dignity of women. Americans for UNFPA is dedicated to building American financial and moral support for the work of UNFPA, an international development agency that supports programs to address poverty, safe pregnancy, HIV/AIDS prevention, and women’s rights.

The contest drew applicants from 20 states, according to UNFPA communications manager M. Angeline Martyn.

From July 29 to Aug. 4, Maynard will visit maternity clinics where the southern African country’s program to treat obstetric fistulas is improving women’s lives.

An obstetric fistula is a hole in the birth canal caused by prolonged labor. It is a socially debilitating condition since mothers are typically left with chronic incontinence. The fistula can be repaired with a simple operation, but in many countries it is too costly.

She will also meet with members of the country’s parliament, visit a dairy farm, and observe the country’s HIV prevention and outreach program at work.

“Complications related to poor reproductive healthcare are some of the leading causes of death among women worldwide,” Maynard wrote in her winning essay. “Women are suffering and dying from illnesses that are preventable and treatable. Despite this knowledge, the Bush administration cut funding for the UNFPA in 2002. ... The lack of funding results in a shortage of programs that help women with family planning, safer pregnancy and childbirth, protection against sexually transmitted infections, and the prevention of violence against women.”

Malawi is a country of 12.9 million people where an estimated 65 percent of all households are living below the national poverty line, according to the UNFPA. The average fertility rate in Malawi is 6.3 lifetime births per woman and the maternal mortality ratio is 1,800 deaths per 100,000 live births.

The trip will be the first time Maynard, who has traveled extensively through Europe, visits Africa.

A Spanish major while at URI, she says her goal is to be a doctor working in developing countries. It is a dream she has had since she was 10 years old.

She will enroll in the master’s program in global public health at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in the fall.

This summer, Maynard is studying for the Medical College Admission Test, or MCAT, while holding down a job at the Dennis M. Lynch Ice Skating Rink in the city.

The oldest of three children of a medical equipment salesman and a stay-at-home mother, Maynard would be the first in her family to become a doctor.

With reports from projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson.

pmarcelo@projo.com