Lesotho

Triple Burden

Women in Lesotho bear a triple burden with an absentee husband: In an era of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), the cultural expectations of motherhood have been stretched beyond nurturing and custodian to providing food, shelter, and care for the entire household. These women become overloaded with the responsibility of two persons' full-time jobs, bearing the full burden of raising and educating their children. Most of the absentee husbands return occasionally from South Africa, already infected with HIV. Whenever these men return from the mines, they demand their matrimonial sexual rights, to which their wives are powerless. Since Lesotho is a patriarchal society, these infected men effectively make decisions about the women's sexuality and infect them with the virus, forcing them to succumb to unsafe sexual actions irrespective of their knowledge about HIV. One major challenge for women in Lesotho is balancing motherhood and their HIV status. Traditionally, wives, grandmothers, and adult daughters provide care to the terminally ill. When these women who are solely responsible for parenting become ill and or take on the additional burden of terminal care giving, the care for their children diminishes.

Health Care and Vital Statistics for Mothers

The maternal mortality rate is quite high at 550 per 100,000 live births, and the neonatal mortality rate is 28 per 1,000 live births. Thirty percent of women report using modern methods of contraception. Lesotho has a total fertility rate of 3.8. In 2000, 60 percent of births were attended by skilled personnel, and 88 percent of women received four or more antenatal care visits.

Abortion is allowed in Lesotho only in cases of necessity, which includes saving the life of the mother, but may also include serious threats to health. There are no current official statistics on the rate of abortion [Page 649]in Lesotho, but research studies indicate that self-induced and illegal abortions are common.

Save the Children ranks Lesotho 5th on its Mothers' Index and Children's Index and 7th on its Women's Index, among 33 Tier III or least developed countries.

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