Elsevier

Contraception

Volume 83, Issue 2, February 2011, Pages 95-98
Contraception

Editorial
Reducing maternal mortality: a global imperative

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2010.10.009Get rights and content

Section snippets

Improve maternal care

In many developing countries, more than a third of pregnant women have no access to or contact with health professionals before they deliver, and 57% of births occur without a skilled attendant present [8]. The assistance of skilled attendants who are trained to identify and manage complications and refer patients to emergency obstetric care if needed can literally mean the difference between life and death for both woman and child. Clearly, if we are to meet MDG 5 by 2015, we are going to have

Make abortion legal and accessible

Improving maternal care is not the only way to save lives. Giving women and girls the power to manage their reproductive lives is also crucial, and that includes access to safe abortion. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 20 million unsafe abortions take place every year. Worldwide, at least 68,000 women annually die from complications from such procedures, and another estimated 5 million women per year suffer long-term injuries [11].

The benefits of legalizing abortions

Make contraception accessible and affordable

As Cates [15] pointed out in his commentary in Contraception, family planning is key to achieving all eight MDGs and in particular MDG no. 5. Unfortunately, in far too many countries, women face obstacles in accessing modern methods of contraception.

According to the UNFPA, about 200 million women and girls globally who want to use contraceptives do not have access to them [8]. For example, a 2006 survey of women in Uganda found that 41% of women wished to space their pregnancies further apart —

Eliminate harmful practices

In many countries, all too many women do not have adequate access to life-saving procedures. However, in other countries such as the United States and Brazil, there are women being exposed to numerous types of procedures that they do not need [17], [18]. The use of C-sections is one such paradox — while many women who desperately need C-sections cannot get them (and they and their babies face severe morbidity and mortality as a result of that), healthy women in other countries are getting them

Time to save women's lives

Today, less than 5 years away from reaching the Millennium Development Goals of 2015, most countries, the United States included, are lagging behind and are not in the right trajectory to achieve MDG 5 by the designated date. But over the last few years, work on maternal health has significantly increased both here in the United States and globally. At long last, the global and national communities seem to be coming together to ensure that all women access the life-saving knowledge and

References (26)

  • Women Deliver. Focus on 5, Women's Health and the MDGs, 2009

  • Women's Dignity, 2010 Best practices: Kidoma reduces maternal mortality by 80%

  • Cited by (14)

    • Trends in maternal mortality in the United States

      2016, Reproductive Toxicology
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      Now women giving birth in China or Saudi Arabia are at a lower risk of dying than in the United States. Two recent global reports have indicated that the U.S. is among the few countries in the world where maternal mortality appears to have increased in the last 25 years [6,8,9]. The reason for this disturbing trend is not clear.

    • Maternal mortality ratio in eastern mediterranean region: A priority of reproductive health

      2020, International Journal of Women's Health and Reproduction Sciences
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    This editorial is adapted from “Time to Save Women's Lives”, which appeared in the Spring 2010 issue of Ms. Magazine as part of the series, “Three Ways to Save Women's Lives”.

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