Jane Chen Quotes
This seems counterintuitive, but turns out that as infant mortality is reduced, population sizes also decrease, because parents don't need to anticipate that their babies are going to die.
Chen, Jane. "Embracing the World's Premature Babies." HuffPost, BuzzFeed, 9 Sept. 2013, www.huffpost.com/entry/embracing-the-worlds-prem_b_3895581.
In Burundi, family land is divided among the male children of a family. The average Burundian woman has 6.3 children, nearly triple the international fertility rate. With this fertility rate, the plots of land for each person inevitably get smaller and smaller over time. At 10,745 square miles, Burundi is slightly smaller than the U.S. state of Maryland, but it holds nearly twice as many people: about 10 million. The small plots of land are inefficient to farm and provide subsistence. So the nation was in a crises as there was little industrialization and land was essential for existence for most Burundians. See {35808} and {35809}.
History has shown that as girls and women get educated and learn about family planning, their children are healthier and have better chances of survival and despite the lower death rate the population trend slows as a result of family planning.
The relationship of population increase economic growth is a critical one. If an underdeveloped country manages to have a 3% annual economic growth rate and also has a 3.2% population growth, at the end of the year, the average person is actually poorer than he was the previous year. South Korea, China, Thailand and India implemented successful population control and family planning programs before they were able to take advantage of economic development. To modernize, the country must be able to have a surplus of funds which can be invested in roads, schools, hospitals, and other facilities which can produce even more growth later. Too many new mouths to feed, clothe and care for can be a barrier to development even if the economy is reasonably good.
Jane Marie Chen is the co-founder of Embrace, a social enterprise startup that aims to help the 15 million premature and low birth-weight babies born every year, through a low-cost infant warmer, that gives premature and low-birth-weight infants a better chance at survival. A premature baby lacks the ability to regulate its own body temperature. The Embrace Warmer uses a phase change material incorporated into a sleeping bag design to regulate the temperature of these babies, without the need for a constant supply of electricity. The device is being used in clinic and hospital settings around the world, with India as its primary market (India is home to 40% of the world's low-birth-weight and premature babies).
