IMPROVING MATERNAL HEALTH IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE BUT REQUIRES POLITICAL WILL

Is it acceptable for mothers to die of preventable causes during pregnancy because they are poor? Sadly, this is the pattern revealed by the United Nations (UN) statistics which show that dying of preventable causes is still a reality for half a million women every year [1]. These women live in the world’s poorest countries and surprisingly, the numbers of preventable maternal deaths in these regions have not improved significantly over the last decade [1,2,3]. But the picture is much different for women in developed nations where maternal deaths are 400 times less frequent [2]. Addressing these inequalities should be a focus of all governments since the consequences of social inequity and increased numbers of orphaned children in any society are grave. Unfortunately, based on the recent UN update on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), universal access to reproductive health is still an elusive target after fifteen years of “commitment” to improving accessibility, and remains totally unreachable for the millions of women that are most in need of care [1].
Maternal health refers to the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth and the period after delivering a child. Pregnancy can be a rewarding experience once adequate healthcare is available, however; pregnancy for many women is associated with suffering and often death. Efforts toward improving maternal health began a long time ago at a conference in Kenya, where attention was drawn to the poor maternal health in many developing countries, and the need for countries to address the high...