Maternal Health

Pregnancy continues to carry a high risk of death worldwide, despite numerous commitments to address the issues that fuel maternal mortality. An estimated 500,000 women die each year from complications of pregnancy and childbirth, most from preventable causes. Approximately 74,000 of these deaths are due to unsafe abortion. Millions of women experience serious, debilitating health conditions as a result of pregnancy and childbirth complications each year. Almost all (99 percent) of the world’s maternal deaths and injuries occur in developing countries.

Health systems often do not prioritize maternal health, making maternity care difficult to access. Also, because of women’s low status in many societies, maternal health services are often of poor quality and lack attention to human rights.

Young women are at heightened risk of complications and death during pregnancy and childbirth, particularly those whose bodies are not as developed due to chronic malnutrition. Early child marriage and taboos on adolescent sexuality contribute to teen pregnancies by denying girls the power, information, and tools to postpone childbearing.

Raise your voice for the Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Act

Ask your Representative to co-sponsor the Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Act, new legislation that promotes a truly comprehensive and integrated approach to U.S. international reproductive health programs.

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Source50% - Only 50% of women who give birth each year receive antenatal, delivery, and newborn care.

Source99% - More than 99% of the estimated 536,000 maternal deaths each year occur in developing countries.

Source15% - Worldwide, nearly 15% of adult women's deaths occur during maternity.

Uganda: Time to Prevent Mothers From Dying Unnecessarily

According to the Uganda Demographic Health Survey Report (UDHS 2006), Ugandan women give birth to an average of seven children, which is the third highest fertility rate in the world. The children are born too early by teenage mothers. By continuing to give birth frequently, our mothers are exposed to high risk pregnancies and births.

Posted on September 5, 2010

ETHIOPIA: Tackling the perils of pregnancy

Childbirth will prove fatal for one in 27 women in Ethiopia and much of the rest of the continent, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), versus a rate of one in 8,000 in industrialized countries

Posted on August 17, 2010

Hillary Clinton Touts Global Health Initiative as Key Foreign Policy Tool

"What exactly does maternal health or immunizations or the fight against HIV and AIDS have to do with foreign policy?" Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton queried a packed crowd of faculty and students at the Johns Hopkins School of Advance International Studies on Monday. "Well, my answer is 'everything.' "

Posted on August 17, 2010

Ethiopia: U.S. foreign policy and unsafe abortion in Africa

United States foreign policy abortion restrictions have often hampered African NGOs’ efforts to reduce deaths and disabilities associated with unsafe abortion procedures. In a positive recent development, however, the fight for African women’s access to safe abortion services took a small but important step forward.

Posted on August 5, 2010

MDG Goals Panned for Isolating Women’s Rights

The Millennium Development Goals' treatment of gender equality and women's empowerment as a "key goal in itself" and not as a "basic human right."

Posted on August 5, 2010

Another Pill That Could Cause a Revolution

Could the decades-long global impasse over abortion worldwide be overcome — by little white pills costing less than $1 each?

Posted on August 3, 2010

G8 Leaders Give Maternal Health $10 Million

Kampala — The G8 leaders have committed $10 million annually to fund maternal and child health in Africa and other developing nations, the AU chairman, Malawi president Prof. Bingu Wa Mutharika, has said.

Posted on July 29, 2010

Fact Sheet: U.S. Global HEALTH Act of 2010

The U.S. Global HEALTH Act of 2010 (H.R. 4933) establishes a strategy to coordinate health-related U.S. foreign assistance and to assist developing countries in strengthening their indigenous health workforces and improving delivery of health services.

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The Case for Comprehensive: Dominican Republic

Rising HIV prevalence for young women and high rates of teen pregnancy are strong indicators of the gaps in the Dominican Republic’s sexual and reproductive health care. Moreover, despite the fact that almost all births are attended by skilled providers, maternal mortality is alarmingly high.

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File Under: Country Profiles

The Case for Comprehensive: Botswana

Botswana appears to be a series of contradictions. Although economically better off than its neighbors, with relatively good roads, solid communications network, and 24-hour hospitals fairly well distributed throughout the country, Botswana nevertheless has serious barriers to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care.

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File Under: Country Profiles