Year of Safe Motherhood: making pregnancy and childbirth safer
Population today 26(6): 3
1998
ISSN/ISBN: 0749-2448 PMID: 12348557 Document Number: 578044
On World Health Day 1998, an Inter-Agency group, including the UN Population Fund, the UN Children's Fund, the World Health Organization, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the Population Council, and Family Care International, launched a year-long campaign to promote awareness of what must be done to reduce maternal mortality and to gain commitments for implementing the affordable measures needed to prevent most of the 600,000 annual maternal deaths. To launch the campaign, health officials highlighted what must be done to improve maternal health worldwide, and the US First Lady pointed out the shocking facts that every minute a woman dies, 110 women experience a pregnancy-related injury, and 190 women face an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy because the political will does not exist to remedy this situation. Preparation for the "Year of Safe Motherhood" began with an October 1997 conference that reviewed the results of 10 years of research on safe motherhood. This research revealed that maternal deaths could be reduced drastically by provision of 1) routine perinatal care; 2) emergency care for life-threatening obstetric complications; 3) services to prevent and manage the complications of unsafe abortion; 4) family planning to prevent unwanted pregnancies; 5) health education and services for adolescents; and 6) community education for women, their families, and decision-makers. Maternal and newborn health services would cost as little as US$3/person/year in developing countries.