Jolie on birth: 'I'm ready for anything'

Happy family

Blaming her hormones for the fact she can't stop giggling, Angelina Jolie addressed the serious topic of Global Education Week on Thursday's Today, in a segment that was taped in the African nation of Namibia – which interviewer Ann Curry described as "the edge of nowhere."

While the topic of helping the world's children go to school was the focus of the sit-down, Curry did bring up how Jolie and Brad Pitt are awaiting the birth of their child, intimating that Namibia might be a strange place to have it.

"We just don't know where it's going to happen or where it's going to be," Jolie conceded.

When Curry asked if there's a doctor nearby, Jolie replied, "We've been smart about it. Things will be as they will be. I'm ready for anything."

And the gender of the child? "I'd like to keep that to myself," said Jolie, who proved outspoken when it came to the subject of schooling for the world's poor.

"The lack of education causes death," she said. "More children die under the age of five when parents are not educated, More people get AIDS when they haven't had an education. Statistics prove that if every child was in school every year, 700,000 less people would get AIDS."

As spokesperson for Global Education Week, Jolie takes a personal interest in the subject partly because her own two children – Maddox, 4, from Cambodia, and Zahara, 1, from Ethiopia – likely would have lacked for every opportunity.

There is no possibility she could have gone to school," Jolie said of Zahara. "In all probability, what would have happened to Maddox, he would have been one of the kids doing the garbage picking in the street, and he would have been on his own.

Jolie appeared surprised when Curry compared her concern for education to that shown by another woman – first lady Laura Bush. "She should nudge her husband," said Jolie.

When Curry pointed out that the United States does spend a considerable amount of money to insure that poor people get an education, Jolie acknowledged, "They do. But (the Bush program) 'No Child Left Behind' means NO child left behind. Britain gives three times more than us right now. They're not richer than us. So, I don't know what the great excuse is."

As for her giggling? "That's what I've gotten from the pregnancy," said Jolie. Brad said that to me, too. I just get hysterical now. It goes on for hours. … It's hormonal."