Midwives East Timor Australia

Quick Facts

• Estimates in 2005 showed that, every minute, a woman dies of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. This adds up to more than 500,000 women annually and 10 million over a generation. Almost all these women - 99% - live and die in developing countries.
• Maternal mortality shows the greatest disparity among countries: sub-Saharan Africa, a woman's risk of dying from treatable or preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth over the course of her lifetime is 1 in 22.
• Every year, more than 1 million children are left motherless and vulnerable because maternal death. Children who have lost their mothers are up to 10 times more likely to die prematurely than those who have not.

Where do we Stand

• Maternal mortality remain unacceptably high across much of the developing world. Fully achieving the Goal 5 target of reducing by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio remains a challenging task; it is the are of least progress among all MDG's.
• At a global level, maternal mortality decreased by less than 1% per year between 1990 and 2005 - far below the 5.5% annual improvement needed to reach the MDG target.
• In 2006. nearly 61% of births in the developing worlds were attended by skilled health personnel, up from less than half in 1990.
• Having fewer pregnancies and spacing births increases the survival rate of both women and their children. However. achieving the Goal 5 target of universal access to reproductive health remains a distant dream in many countries.